Danny Rose trains with York City as former World Cup semi-final defender looks for new club ahead of transfer deadline

Instead, the 32-year-old from Doncaster is simply working on his fitness as he tries to find a new club ahead of next week's deadline for clubs to sign free agents.

York are not understood to have any plans to sign him at this stage.

The Leeds United youth product has been without a club since he mutually agreed with Watford to cancel his contract in September 2022.

News he was training with the Minstermen came out on the day Gareth Southgate named his England squad for the next cycle of European Championship qualifiers.

Rose won the last of his caps in 2019 and his younger than his former Tottenham Hotspur team-mate Kyle Walker and Jordan Henderson, who kept their places in Southgate's squad to face Italy and Ukraine this month.

He was a substitute for England in the 2018 World Cup semi-final, only the second the Three Lions have reached on foreign soil. As well as Walker and Henderson, Jordan Pickford, Eric Dier, John Stones, Harry Maguire, Harry Kane, Kieran Trippier, Marcus Rashford and Nick Pope are still in the squad, and Raheem Sterling only missed out through injury.

But Rose has struggled since his loan spell with Newcastle United came to an end in the Covid-affected 2019-20 season. Since then his only senior appearances have been nine matches at Watford.

The defender has spoken out against racism after being a victim during his career, including when representing his country, and has talked about his battles with depression after knee surgery as a Spurs player coincided with a number of distressing family issues.

Conference clubs do not operate within the transfer window league sides do, but their deadline for signing players for the rest of the season is March 23. That is also the deadline for league clubs signing out-of-contract players such as Rose.

Meanwhile, York have loaned centre-back Sam Sanders to Boston United for the rest of the season.