England U-21 manager Stuart Pearce is unhappy with the way Aston Villa attacker Gabriel Agbonlahor has gone missing thereby losing out on the chance to make it to the 23-man squad for next month's European Championship in Holland. However, Villa boss Martin O’Neill has termed the situation as a “mix-up” resulted from mis-communication and has apologised.

Agbonlahor had a superb season for the Villans and was considered a certainty for the summer’s U-21 tournament. However, his act of disappearance has left Pearce surprised.

"I think he's been away on holiday and won't return the calls," said Pearce.

"Certain managers will have preferences and certain managers will have baggage with certain individuals."

He added: "I held a lot of pleasure in representing my country. People talk about wanting to walk to Wembley to play.

"Talk is cheap, I think it's important to show that in your actions.

"The more important thing from my point of view is the players who are desperate to be here. And last week, at the training camp, certainly showed their determination to be part of the squad.

"I felt a bit disappointed but one person's loss in another one's gain.

"The bottom line is someone else is in the squad and they might end up scoring the winner and coming home with a winners' medal."

O'Neill said: “I spoke to Stuart Pearce a couple of weeks ago to say to him that Gabby had had a long season without hardly a moment’s rest in the Premiership and that he may need a little while longer to recover from illness and niggling injury.

“We originally had four other players excluding Gabby in the party and all were allowed to join up for the Spanish get together. Liam Ridgewell withdrew for personal reasons and Luke Moore had to return because of injury while in Spain.”

He added: “Gary Cahill and Ashley Young will be with the squad for the tournament. I felt Gabby would benefit from a slightly longer break before making himself available for selection for the tournament but perhaps I didn't communicate this correctly to Stuart. I'm genuinely sorry about any mix up as I know Gabby was very keen to be in the squad.”

The England U-21 squad: Alnwick (Tottenham), Carson (Liverpool), Hart (Man City); Baines (Wigan), Cahill (Aston Villa), Ferdinand (West Ham), Hoyte (Arsenal), Onuoha (Man City), Rosenior (Fulham), Taylor (Newcastle), Whittingham (Cardiff); Bentley (Blackburn), Huddlestone (Tottenham), Milner (Newcastle), Noble (West Ham), Reo-Coker (West Ham), Richardson (Man Utd), Routledge (Tottenham); Derbyshire (Blackburn), Lita (Reading), Nugent (Preston), Vaughan (Everton), Young (Aston Villa)

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