SNUBBED Saints captain James Ward-Prowse has been handed a vote of confidence by manager Ruben Selles after the midfielder was once again left out of Gareth Southgate’s England squad.

A difficult spell of form for both Ward-Prowse and his Saints team led to the 28-year-old missing out on England’s World Cup squad in November and despite improved performances, the skipper still hasn’t been able to crack Southgate’s group.

The Saints academy graduate has been ever-present this season under all of Ralph Hasenhuttl, Nathan Jones, and Selles, playing every single minute of his side’s Premier League campaign.

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In Ward-Prowse’s place, Southgate has opted to select Manchester City outcast Kalvin Phillips - yet to start in the league this season - leading to understandable ire from sections of the Saints fanbase.

And speaking after the announcement of the squad, Saints boss Selles touched on how he, the club, and Ward-Prowse himself have been dealing with the disappointment.

“We have the philosophy that we need to concentrate on the things we can control and control the things that we can,” the Spaniard said. 

“We can not control if Gareth (Southgate) will call him (James Ward-Prowse) for the national team or not, we can just control what we put in every day. 

“For me, Prowsey is our captain and has been a model on the pitch. He always needs to be there. But I’m not the one making the list and I guess when they made the list they have their own reasons (for not picking him) whether people understand them or not. 

“But I respect the job, we will take care of Prowsey, and we will try to do our job even better for him to be there in the future.

Daily Echo: James Ward-Prowse scores to make it 3-3 against Spurs.James Ward-Prowse scores to make it 3-3 against Spurs. (Image: PA)

“I also don’t see that he’s taken it internally as any problem. He’s just continued working hard, doing his job for this club - that’s huge. So we will take it and I hope that he will be there in the future.”

Scorer of ten Premier League goals last season, Ward-Prowse currently sits on seven this time around, having notched six of those since Boxing Day.

His latest strike came in stoppage time against Spurs as he smashed home a penalty against close friend Fraser Forster to rescue Saints a crucial point.

But despite a successful few months, it hasn’t been enough to see Ward-Prowse add to his 11 England caps, leading some to speculate that it would take a move away from Saints for the Portsmouth native to break through regularly on the international scene.

Ward-Prowse still has three years left on his current contract and Selles says that any discussion about his future will have to wait until Saints find out which division they will be competing in next season.

“Any conversation like that is irrelevant until the end of the season,” the 39-year-old explained. “We will take it (the conversation) once we stay in the Premier League.”