Mason Greenwood return plan set for 2025 as England decision confirmed

Mason Greenwood looks set to return to international football in the near future, four years after making his England debut.

Posted Tuesday, November 12, 2024 by Express.co.uk

Jamaica manager Steve McClaren has confirmed that Mason Greenwood has decided to turn his back on England and pledge his allegiance to Jamaica. And the former Manchester United coach hopes Greenwood will be available for selection in March, the next international break after the November fixtures.

The 23-year-old forward earned his first senior England cap in September 2020, coming off the bench in a 1-0 victory against Iceland.

Mason Greenwood's international future lies away from England.

However, Gareth Southgate didn't select Greenwood again after sending him and Phil Foden home from international duty for breaching Covid protocols.

Greenwood drifted further away from the England picture when he was arrested and later charged with attempted rape, controlling and coercive behaviour, and assault occasioning actual bodily harm in January 2022.

He denied all of the charges, which the UK's Crown Prosecution Service dropped in February 2023, and later mutually agreed to leave United, where he had been suspended during the investigation.

Greenwood has resumed his promising trajectory since, first scoring 10 goals in 36 appearances on loan at Getafe last season.

Marseille secured his services in a £27million deal in the summer, and he has started blazingly in France, netting eight times in his first 11 games for the Ligue 1 giants.

And McClaren has confirmed that Greenwood is now eyeing a return to international football with Jamaica, his father's birthplace, rather than England.

"I've heard a lot of publicity about and always around Mason Greenwood," McClaren explained on Saturday.

"I am constantly in touch with Mason, [and] the message is always the same: 'When the time is right.' You've got to think he's had a traumatic time the last two years in his contract, and he's been on loan.

He's been here; he's been there – the publicity... And I think he just wants to settle in at Marseille and enjoy his football, which he's doing.

"And he wants to join the Reggae Boyz. I know that. Every time I speak to him, I've no reason to doubt that, and the process goes on."

McClaren added that he is optimistic that Greenwood could be ready to wear the Reggae Boyz shirt for the first time in 2025.

The 63-year-old added: "I didn't expect it to be, once you missed the first camp, any of these camps, but I'm hoping by March time we will have made progress on everything.

"As I said, our whole project and process is about World Cup qualification, and that's still, I know, on the horizon.

"But it's still something that we're thinking about now and planning for in the long term. So Mason, we keep an eye on and keep you posted on that."