James Tedesco has pulled out of Australia\u2019s Ashes squad, just days after being recalled.<\/p>\n
Selectors met on Sunday to decide on a preliminary 23-man group for the end-of-year Tests, with the final squad to be confirmed next Monday.<\/p>\n
Tedesco had earned a recall after being dropped for last year\u2019s Pacific Championships, but was set to regain the No.1 jersey off Dylan Edwards.<\/p>\n
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By continuing you agree to our Terms<\/a> and Privacy Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n But the Sydney Roosters fullback has informed officials he will not head to England, as he is due to be best man at his brother\u2019s wedding.<\/p>\n \u201cI asked him to think about it, but he believes that he wouldn\u2019t be doing the right thing by his family if he wasn\u2019t in the wedding,\u201d ARL Commission chairman Peter V\u2019landys said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a shame because he played so well this year and deserved his place in the team.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve let (coach) Kevin Walters know, and we\u2019ll now go back to the drawing board.<\/p>\n \u201cJames was very professional about it, and he really agonised over it because he really wanted to be there.\u201d<\/p>\n Tedesco is the frontrunner to win the Dally M Medal on Wednesday night, after also being handed his fourth Players\u2019 Champion award on Monday.<\/p>\n The 32-year-old has told selectors he still wants to play for Australia at next year\u2019s home World Cup, if picked.<\/p>\n \u201cHe did make a really strong point that he certainly wants to be considered next year for the World Cup,\u201d V\u2019landys said.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s not retiring from international rugby, he\u2019s unfortunately got this family commitment that he can\u2019t get out of.\u201d<\/p>\n Reece Walsh is now considered a strong chance to earn his maiden Kangaroos call up, while Edwards could also retain his spot.<\/p>\n Selectors were going to pick a 22-man squad, but have opted for an extra young player in preparation for next year\u2019s World Cup.<\/p>\n Canberra\u2019s Ethan Strange is expected to be one option as the 23rd man.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"James Tedesco has pulled out of Australia\u2019s Ashes squad, just days after being recalled. Selectors met on Sunday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":178799,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,158,760,588,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-178798","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nrl","11":"tag-rugby","12":"tag-sport","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178798\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/178799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}