Manchester City defender Joleon Lescott has been told he will not be included in Stuart Pearce's England squad when it is announced on Thursday.
Pearce is due to reveal which players will be involved in next week's friendly with Holland at Wembley.
It had been anticipated Lescott would be amongst them given he was a regular under Fabio Capello and played alongside Phil Jagielka in the recent victory over world champions Spain.
However, following Wednesday night's Europa League victory over Porto, Lescott confirmed he will not be involved.
"I have been told I am not involved," said Lescott. "It is a chance for other players to get involved and prove what good players they are."
It gives credence to the theory Pearce might be about to pack his squad with younger players.
That will give hope to uncapped duo Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Tom Cleverley, in addition to the rookies such as Phil Jones and Chris Smalling, who have already made their international bows.
However, it is anticipated some experienced players will be involved.
Lescott's City team-mate Micah Richards will have more reason than most to be anxiously waiting for news of the squad, which will be announced at Wembley in the morning.
That Richards added just a single cap to his overall tally of 12 during Fabio Capello's near four-year stint in charge was most perplexing.
Despite his outstanding form for City, it seemed Capello never trusted Richards' defensive capabilities.
Nevertheless, half a game against France in November 2010 is scant reward for his efforts at Manchester City, where he was installed as skipper during Vincent Kompany's recent suspension.
So, just over a fortnight after the Italian swept out of office in the most dramatic of circumstances, Richards will discover whether anything has changed.
Pearce knows all about Richards from the time they spent together with England's Under-21 squad, but then the same could also be said of Kyle Walker and Manchester United duo Smalling and Jones, who all started at right-back for the seniors under Capello, in addition to Liverpool's Glen Johnson, who has previously been thought of as first-choice.
Both Rio Ferdinand and Michael Dawson were involved under Capello.
Indeed, the latter man replaced the former in South Africa when Ferdinand suffered the knee injury that ruled him out of a World Cup campaign he had been appointed captain for.
However, Ferdinand's only call-up this season was for the postponed friendly with Holland in August that next week's game replaces and Capello seemed to have decided his fitness record was not good enough to merit further consideration.
The 33-year-old has featured in United's last four matches though. And with John Terry ruled out with a knee injury, Jagielka sidelined by a hamstring complaint, Gary Cahill struggling for form since his transfer window move to Chelsea and Lescott now ruled out as well, Pearce may view Ferdinand's experience as a positive.
Dawson, meanwhile, has now recovered from the Achilles injury that forced him to miss four months of Tottenham's stellar season and will also hope to force his way into Euro 2012 contention.
Had Capello been picking this squad, youngsters such as Daniel Welbeck, Daniel Sturridge and Cleverley would have more reason for optimism than Jermain Defoe, Peter Crouch and Frank Lampard, none of whom seemed to be part of the Italian's overall strategy.
Given Pearce was part of that coaching team and has worked so much with the younger England players, an element of continuity is anticipated.
Yet, the entire occasion will be underpinned by the truth that, by Euro 2012, Harry Redknapp could be in charge and he may bring a different philosophy completely.
Beyond that, should, for some inexplicable reason, Redknapp end up not taking the job, Pearce would become a live candidate therefore throwing a load of kids to a Wembley slaughter against the World Cup finalists would not do his job prospects much good.
It is one of the reasons why, if he is confirmed as skipper tomorrow, Steven Gerrard will only be handed the job for a single game even though he would appear to be the perfect replacement for Terry, whose clash with Anton Ferdinand at Loftus Road in October triggered the whole earthquake that caused Capello's regime to collapse.
