The England boss is to announce a provisional squad on May 21 before reducing it to 23 on June 7 and explained that more players will be selected at first due to injury doubts.

The previous two major tournaments have featured 26-man squad limits and UEFA are considering requests to reinstate the same number again.

Southgate said: "There are so many questions on injuries.

"It's inevitable we're going to be naming a longer squad, which is what we did before the Euros here even though we were dealing with 26 then.

"It seems to be [settled at 23]. There is one more UEFA meeting where there's been a little bit of talk amongst some of the coaches about possibly increasing that."

Meanwhile, Southgate is still open to letting Ben White play at the tournament despite the fact that the Arsenal defender has made himself unavailable for selection since leaving the 2022 World Cup early.

The coach said: "It’s really for Ben now. The door is open for us.

"That’s clearly difficult ahead of the Euros, where he missed all the qualifying campaign and you’ve got players that have played all the way through but we have no idea of knowing who’s going to be available in that area of the pitch.

"We’ve lost four [defenders] to injury this camp. So, for me, it’s open. I have absolutely no issue."