Late injuries to Frank Lampard and Gary Cahill were tough breaks for England.
Yet they have given two Liverpool youngsters a chance to fill in, and bounce back from a tough club season, and have meant Chelsea have lost out on league bragging rights. (We're sure they'll get over it though being European Champions and all)
Jordan Henderson and Martin Kelly's inclusions, brings the total number of Liverpool players set to represent the club at Euro 2012 to nine, along with Arsenal, higher than any other Premier League club.
Or at least it did until the club announced Dirk Kuyt would depart to Fenerbahce.
After finishing the season in eighth place, it perhaps didn't seem quite right that Liverpool would be at the top of this particular table, and the discussion of Stewart Downing meriting his place deserves its own article.
Now Kuyt has departed, Arsenal are the league's top representatives by two places. Fans will hope Van Persie doesn't do a Kuyt and move on to pastures new.
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Here is the full list the top Premier League clubs and their representatives at the tournament, which kicks off on Friday.
Arsenal: Wojciech Szezcesny (Poland), Tomas Rosicky (Czech Republic), Robin van Persie (Holland), Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Theo Walcott (England), Laurent Koscielny (France), Nicklas Bendtner (Denmark), Per Mertesacker, Lukas Podolski (Germany), Andrei Arshavin (Russia) : Total 10
Liverpool: Daniel Agger (Denmark), Glen Johnson, Stewart Downing, Andy Carroll, Steven Gerrard, Martin Kelly, Jordan Henderson (England), Pepe Reina (Spain) : Total 8
Manchester City: Nigel de Jong (Holland), Joe Hart, Joleon Lescott, James Milner (England), Gael Clichy, Samir Nasri (Manchester City), Mario Balotelli (Italy), David Silva (Spain) : Total 8
Manchester United: Patrice Evra (France), Phil Jones, Wayne Rooney, Danny Welbeck, Ashley Young (England), Anders Lindegaard (Denmark), Nani (Portugal) : Total 7
Chelsea: Petr Cech (Czech Republic), Ashley Cole, John Terry (England), Florent Malouda (France), Raul Meireles (Portugal), Juan Mata, Fernando Torres (Spain) : Total 7
Tottenham: Jermain Defoe, Scott Parker (England), Vedran Corluka, Nico Kranjcar, Luka Modric (Croatia), Rafael van der Vaart (Holland) : Total 6
Other clubs:
Everton - 5, West Brom - 4, Sunderland - 4, Fulham - 3, Newcastle - 3, Stoke - 2, Aston Villa - 2, Swansea - 1, West Ham - 1,
Which Premier League players do you think will excel at the tournament?
image: © kong niffe
Dan Coombs
@hitcdancoombsGoogle+more stories from Dan Coombs
Dan Coombs is a writer who is keen to embrace the internet revolution. He first started writing for us in June 2011 and commenced his new role as Sports Editor in February 2012.
As a trained journalist he has met famous faces from Mr T to Boris Johnson. He once featured in an England World Cup music video too, but it did not make the charts.
He grew up wanting to be a Formula 1 driver, but it looks like this dream has passed him by. Instead, he hopes you enjoy reading his writing on our site, as we seek to debate the day's sporting hot topics.
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