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Phillips’ England prospects look bleak after another poor West Ham show

KALVIN PHILLIPS’S England prospects are looking bleak following his latest horror show for West Ham at the weekend.

The 28-year-old midfielder was substituted at half-time in front of Three Lions boss Gareth Southgate with the Hammers 2-0 down at home to struggling Burnley.

Southgate names his squad for this month’s friendlies against Brazil and Belgium on Thursday as he continues his preparations for Euro 2024.

Phillips, a Southgate favourite, would probably have been a shoo-in for the squad had he stayed on Manchester City’s bench this season.

But the former Leeds man’s January loan switch to West Ham has been little short of disastrous so far.

Phillips was at fault for goals in his first two appearances and was then sent off in his fourth, a 2-0 defeat at Nottingham Forest.

Handed just his third Premier League start by Hammers boss David Moyes against Burnley, Phillips was culpable again as David Datro Fofana strolled forward before opening the scoring from 25 yards.

A Konstantinos Mavropanos own goal put Burnley – who had not scored for a month – 2-0 up before Moyes decided he had seen enough and hauled Phillips off at half-time.

“I had to make changes, I had to try and do something,” explained Moyes.

“Obviously we were 2-0 down so it could have been any one of many who came off. But I just felt we had to get more attacking players on and I wanted to try and keep as many of the goalscorers on the pitch.”

Lucas Paqueta halved the deficit a minute into the second half and substitute Danny Ings secured a 2-2 draw for West Ham in stoppage-time.

Ings’s first Premier League goal in more than a year denied his former club a first win since the turn of the year and left them 10 points from safety.

Fofana’s spectacular long-range strike was his third goal since joining from Chelsea on loan in January.

Clarets boss Vincent Kompany said: “It seems like he’s growing into the season and into the team as well.

“We will need performances like the performance he gave against West Ham. He was outstanding.

“Hopefully he can continue like that from now until the end of the season. These are the players who will help us.”

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