England suffered a shock defeat to Uzbekistan to exit the u17 World Cup on Wednesday, with Myles Lewis-Skelly and Ethan Nwaneri set for an early return home.

After topping their u17 World Cup group, England appeared to have one of the easier round-of-16 matches. The team were taking on Uzbekistan, who had finished behind Spain and Mali to clinch third place in their group.

Yet the reverse proved to be true, as Amir Saidov gave Uzbekistan the lead within just four minutes.

Joel Ndala levelled the scores in the 35 minute, but a second-half goal from Laziz Mirzaev put Uzbekistan back in control, and they held on for a 2-1 win.

Arsenal’s Myles Lewis-Skelly had started the game, and Ethan Nwaneri came on for the final 28 minutes, but neither player could find the equaliser England needed to avoid elimination.

It will be a bitterly disappointing blow for the team, after a promising group stage. Despite defeat to Brazil in their final group game, England topped the standings having thrashed New Caledonia 10-0 and beaten Iran 2-1 in their other two fixtures.

Nwaneri and Lewis-Skelly featured heavily in the opening two games, with Lewis-Skelly providing an assist and winning a penalty, whilst Nwaneri scored one and assisted one.

The pair will now head back to Arsenal early.

If they’d made the final, the duo would have been tied up at the tournament until December 2nd, but their early return could see them in line to feature in a couple of extra youth games for the Gunners.

The Arsenal u19s play in the UEFA Youth League next Wednesday, November 29th at 13:00 GMT, which now seems like a reasonable target for a return.

The u18s are set to kick off their Youth Cup campaign soon as well, with Lewis-Skelly and Nwaneri both still eligible to play for the side.

Arsenal will face Crewe Alexandra at home, and the date for the game hasn’t yet been determined. But assuming it’s not in the next few days, it looks like both players could now be involved.