The midfielder has made just one brief Premier League appearance since joining City from Leeds over the summer, while he has come off the bench once in the League Cup and a couple more times in the Champions League.
The shoulder injury that has kept him out means he has not had ideal preparation for the World Cup this winter, but Gareth Southgate is such a big fan of the 26-year-old that he has taken him along anyway.
The England boss nearly didn’t have the opportunity to take Phillips to Qatar, though, after he dropped a weight on his own foot in the gym earlier this month.
After playing in the League Cup against Chelsea, Phillips missed the Premier League clash with Brentford he was hoping to play in, but had to sit out.
‘It’s quite a good story, to be honest,’ said Phillips. ‘So, before the City game against Brentford, being a professional that I am, I went to the gym before the match and was just doing loads of Achilles work on the leg press.
‘I’d gone to pull a weight off the rack and there must have been one stuck behind it and I pulled it off and it has landed straight on my foot and cut it all. But it is not too bad – it is the blisters from training (in Qatar) that hurt more.
‘It isn’t too bad, but I stood for about 10 seconds and thought, “Oh my god, what was that?” If it wasn’t a 5kg plate, if it had been heavier, I think it would have been a lot worse.
‘Imagine that, that is what you get for being professional.’
Phillips is thought to be fit and available to play in the group stages for England, although has fallen behind Declan Rice and Jude Bellingham in the midfield pecking order, so will not be starting against Iran on Monday.
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