England's World Cup 2018 squad - ranked: Who's on the plane to Russia with one Premier League game to go?

The build-up to England's attempts to end 52 years of hurt in Russia this summer is well and truly on.
Gareth Southgate's men will walk out in Volgograd to face Tunisia in their opening game at the 2018 World Cup on June 18 with the hopes and expectations of a nation weighing heavy on their shoulders.

Southgate will name his squad and reserve players next week, before submitting his final 23 by June 4.

Here, we try to the plane to second guess the England manager, ranking the players by likelihood we think they have of making the squad to go to Russia this summer. Here goes...

Little-to-no chance

There are plenty of players that not so long ago had a chance of making the squad but there is now too little time for them to change Southgate's mind.

In goal, Fraser Forster and Tom Heaton both look set to miss out. Forster has had a poor campaign at Southampton, losing his place to Alex McCarthy, while Heaton has spent almost the entire season out injured.

 

Leighton Baines and Luke Shaw offer alternatives at left-back, while on the other side of defence, Nathaniel Clyne's recovery from injury looks to have come too late. 

 Chris Smalling will almost certainly not be be going to Russia given the fact Southgate does not rate him highly enough as a ball-playing centre-back.

In midfield, injury has put paid to Harry Winks' chances of making the squad, while Danny Drinkwater and Ross Barkley have not played enough at Chelsea to be considered, while Jack Cork, called up last year, has fallen out of favour.

There was a little strength behind the late push from up north for Jonjo Shelvey to be recalled given he is probably the most technically-gifted passer Southgate has at his disposal, but he hasn't played for England since 2015 and, in all likelihood would be lucky to make the cut.  

Ademola Lookman is ending the season well in Germany, but his run of form has probably come too late.