England send Phil Foden and Mason Greenwood home after alleged coronavirus rule breach

England manager Gareth Southgate has confirmed that "naive" Mason Greenwood and Phil Foden are to be sent home after breaching coronavirus guidelines in Iceland.

Southgate said the pair had apologised after allegedly meeting two women following their England debuts in Reykjavik on Saturday and would not be part of Tuesday's match in Denmark.

Manchester United said they were "disappointed" in Greenwood, 18, while Manchester City's described the actions of 20-year-old Foden as "totally inappropriate" and "well below the standards expected of a ... City player and an England international."

Southgate insisted that, contrary to Icelandic media reports, the breach did not take place in secure areas occupied by the squad in their hotel and added that Greenwood and Foden had not been in contact with any team-mate or staff member since.

The pair did not join the squad for breakfast or training on Monday morning, and will now make their way back to England separately.

Southgate said on Monday afternoon: "Unfortunately this morning it was brought to my attention that two boys have broken the Covid guidelines in terms of our secure bubble.

"So we had to decide very quickly that they couldn’t have any interaction with the rest of the team, wouldn’t be able to travel to training and given the procedures that we have to follow now, they’ll have to travel back to England separately.

"Nothing has happened in the areas we occupy in the hotel.

"I’m still getting to grips with some of the detail but what is clear is there was a breach of the Covid guidelines. We’ve spent a long time getting those measures in place and the whole squad have really followed that to the letter.

"We’ve had four tests in the period we’ve been together. Our staff have done an incredible job of keeping that really secure and tight, which was so important both to get the games played but also for the safety and security of our team and staff. In that respect, we have no alternative but to do what we are doing.

"We are very clear that no other members of our party have been in contact with those two players and that’s why they couldn’t go to breakfast this morning or join us for training," the England manager continued. "We are very clear we are following all the guidelines in that regard. It is a very serious situation and we have treated it that way and acted as quickly as we have been able to."

Southgate included the pair in the squad for the first time for the Nations League qualifying double-header and Foden made his full debut in Saturday's 1-0 win over Iceland, with Greenwood a late substitute.

Asked if the incident could impact their England careers, Southgate said: "All of those things are too early [to say].

"Until I have all the information and I am totally aware of every situation, then I don’t think I should be making those sort of comments. I am a father with young adults, I know young people get things wrong. We are not excusing that in this instance and we have got to assess everything else moving forward."

"Obviously, they’ve been naïve," he added. "We’ve dealt with it appropriately. Of course I recognise their age but the whole world is dealing with this pandemic and there is responsibility on every age group to make sure that they play their part in keeping each other safe and not spreading the virus.

"We are certainly not underestimating how important it is to keep that bubble as we have.

"I think unfortunately for the two boys they're going to find themselves in a situation because of where we are across the globe with the pandemic, there's going to be a lot of judgement of them from afar. So It's not for me to make that more difficult for them. They understand their responsibilities. They understand they've got this wrong. Our job is to separate them from the squad and our job is to get on with the game."

The incident caps a string of high-profile off-field misdemeanours involving England internationals, with the win over Iceland already overshadowed by Harry Maguire's removal from the squad for his conviction in Greece and the last camp marred by Raheem Sterling's scuffle with Joe Gomez.

"We have to treat every incident separately," Southgate said. "These are two boys I don’t know particularly well at the moment so I can’t speak in great depth. I’ve obviously got to try to speak to them later in the appropriate way. They’ve got responsibilities, they have apologised but everything has happened so quickly, we’ve got to get to the bottom of all the facts.

"Private conversations will remain private and I haven't had the chance to speak to them at great length. Everything needed to be happening very quickly so it was as much as anything to establish exactly whether they had put themselves in that situation and to inform them they needed to stay separate for the rest of the team and we would need to deal with things appropriately to get them back to England."

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