Gareth Southgate explains stance on Jordan Henderson's England future after Liverpool exit

England manager Gareth Southgate has confirmed he has spoken with Jordan Henderson about his future on the international stage, insisting the door remains open after his move to Saudi Arabia.

Henderson left Liverpool this summer to join up with former Red Steven Gerrard at Al Ettifaq and many have speculated that his decision to head to a lower-profile league could spell the end for the 33-year-old's time with England.

Speaking to talkSPORT, Southgate revealed Henderson contacted him before moving to the Middle East to discuss whether his future with England will be impacted.

"I spoke to him in the summer, the question he wanted to know was, 'if I move here, are you going to automatically rule me out?'," Southgate said. "We would be stupid to do that. Why would we rule anyone out based on where they are playing? We have got to see how they are playing.

"We have an idea of what that league will look like but we won't know until we actually start to see the games.

"If you asked me three months ago what that league would look like, I'd have a very different idea to what it is looking like as more and more players decide to go there. Big-name players but not so many that are in the prime of their careers but not players past their sell-by date.

"I think that whole project is fascinating for where it is going to head and what that might look like over the next few years.

"But Henderson won't be playing in the Premier League. He won't play in the Champions League, which is the easiest assessment for the level he is playing at."

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Asked whether he would ever entertain a move to Saudi Arabia himself, Southgate confessed he could not rule anything out.

"I don't think you can really answer that question until that scenario is in front of you," he began. "Because it would be easy for me to dismiss it and say, 'no', or to say...well it wouldn't be easy to say yes, because there's so much you'd have to think about.

"Well, because I don't think anybody in their right mind can honestly answer that until they are right in that position.

"I might have a view now, and I could give you an easy answer to get myself off the hook and take any pressure and get everybody to go, 'oh that's fine'.

"But the reality of that is, until you're in that situation...by the way it's not something I'm looking to do!"

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