Mourinho reveals first-team player he has decided to leave out of Europa League squad

Jose Mourinho has revealed that he decided to leave Joe Rodon out of his Europa League squad for the second half of the competition, despite the Welshman playing recent Premier League games.

Rodon missed the deadline for the initial group stage squad as he didn’t arrive at Tottenham until the very end of the summer domestic transfer window.

However, some fans would have been forgiven for assuming that Rodon would be included this time around due to his recent involvement in big games.

Rodon has made seven Premier League appearances this season, starting the last three against Sheffield United, Liverpool and Brighton (TransferMarkt).

Despite his one mistake against the Reds, the central defender has impressed during his time in the starting line-up.

Unfortunately, Mourinho revealed that he felt it was easier to not call Rodon up again than it was to drop a player who had previously been in the squad.

On whether Rodon was added to the latest squad, Mourinho said (Football London): “We didn’t. A hard decision but we wanted to show respect for the group.

“Wanted to show respect for the group. Very hard for the group to cope with one of the players involved to be out.

“We kept Tanganga in spite of good possibilities the kid had to go out on loan because then Tanganga, Sanchez, Alderweireld, Dier. We have to do it without Rodon.

“With the emotional impact, it has less impact on a player who was not part of the squad to stay out than a player who was part of it, to change him. Decide to not go in that direction.

“Gedson and Gazzaniga left but they were not in the squad. We would have had to take someone else out.”

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