Gareth Southgate has provided an insight into how he went about leaving Wayne Rooney out of the national team during the early stages of his time as England manager.

Having taken over from Sam Allardyce back in 2016, one of Southgate's biggest challenges early on was deciding what to do with Rooney, who had started to become a peripheral figure at club level with Manchester United.

The striker had racked up well over 100 caps during his 13-year international career, and initially Southgate stuck with him, playing him in each of his first three matches at the helm.

However, after playing a full game in a 3-0 victory over Scotland in November 2016, Rooney was never picked for a competitive match for England again.

In a recent appearance on the High Performance Podcast, Southgate looked back on that time and how he handled that particular situation. During the episode, he acknowledged that Rooney had accepted his decision very well, which allowed the rest of the squad to continue moving forwards under his stewardship.

The 50-year-old manager said: "Wayne Rooney is one of the most honest people in terms of his view of his performance, where he's at. So I inherited Wayne at a time where he was in the process of leaving Manchester United really, not in the team.

"So I'm having to have a conversation with him and I played with him, he was a young player when I was first with England. I'm having to have a conversation with a guy who's one of the greatest players to play for England who I've got enormous respect for how he played but also how we dealt with this little period I had him because he couldn't have been more for the team, more honest in his feedback, more understanding of, 'Now look Gareth, I'm not in the team at my club, I don't expect to be in the team here.'

"So I hope I dealt with that in the best possible way but they're the sorts of decisions you're having to make to allow the next ones to come in and sort of clear the space for the younger ones to go and have their moment. He would have been brilliant with the other players, I know for a fact. You could see the way he spoke to the other players, really generous, made the environment easier for them to come into that."

Southgate appears to have maintained a strong relationship with Rooney in the years since, as he handed England's most-capped outfield player one final appearance in a friendly against the USA in 2018.

Making such a difficult decision early on in his time with England may have held Southgate in good stead for what was to come. He has had to make some tough selection choices over the years, and that will be no different when England begin their Euro 2020 campaign this weekend.

With such an abundance of attacking talent including Phil Foden, Raheem Sterling, Jack Grealish and Marcus Rashford, some of these players will be left disappointed and having to wait for their turn to shine on the pitch.

Yet Southgate appears to understand that he cannot please everyone and that part of his job is to have difficult conversations with his players. 

He managed to handle the Rooney situation well while ensuring the atmosphere remained positive within the squad, and if he can keep all of his star players on board this summer, England could have an excellent chance of ending their 55-year wait for a major trophy.