Neville, who will also coach the Great Britain women’s team at the Olympics, has deliberately cut down his England squad for their games against Brazil and Portugal next month to fall in line with the 18 players he will be allowed to take to Tokyo.
Normally, Neville would name 22-24 players in his squads, but yesterday at Wembley there were only 20 names in the group for the friendlies against Brazil at Middlesbrough on October 5, and Portugal in Setubal on October 8.
The first major casualty of the cutback was World Cup forward Toni Duggan, who had been struggling with injury and not played much football.
Neville said: “I never thought I would ever go to an Olympics.
“I was at the British Olympic Association. You associate the Olympics with athletics, swimming and cycling, but when we went in there and saw all the medals – Katherine Grainger, Steven Redgrave -it’s bigger than the World Cup.
“When we go to the Olympics we are playing for Great Britain. Playing for something bigger than a team – we are playing for something equal to the NHS in terms of importance to the country.
“It really hits home. It’s a different level of preparation, of detail – you are playing for something bigger than just one gold medal. I’m really excited about it.”
The England coach, who steered his team to the World Cup semi-finals in France last summer, but now has to consider players from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland as well, added: “The long-list has been selected and players from all countries have been notified.
But, added Neville, for whom these England games are also warm up matches for the 2021 European Championships: “I’ve told them I am going to pick the best 18 GB players. Take the flags away. We want to go there and win, and we want the best players on the plane. There is a massive dangling carrot there.
“We need to bring it back tighter and get that real competition. I want them to feel when they get picked for England now they’ve really earned it. We want to reduce the numbers in terms of the Olympic model.
“We want people checking their phones for that email to come through.”
Jordan Nobbs makes her return after recovering from her cruciate ligament injury.
Squad: Mary Earps (Man Utd), Ellie Roebuck (Man C), Carly Telford (Chelsea), Alex Greenwood (Lyon), Millie Bright (Chelsea), Lucy Bronze (Lyon), Steph Houghton (Man C), Aoife Mannion (Man C), Abbie McManus (Man Utd), Demi Stokes (Man C), Beth England (Chelsea), Beth Mead (Arsenal), Jordan Nobbs (Arsenal), Jill Scott (Man C), Keira Walsh (Man C), Leah Williamson (Arsenal), Jodie Taylor (Reign), Rachel Daly (Houston Dash), Fran Kirby (Chelsea), Nikita Parris (Lyon).