I get it from the whole paragraph and the situation. You're not even trying to understand the context by isolating that sentence. England fans are starting to wonder if he wants to be selected at all. Southgate obviously wants to call him up otherwise he wouldn't be talking to United and Greenwood's family about it, this is what he said about it
"John McDermott [Football Association technical director] and myself went to United and had a good chat with Mason and his family and we agreed we would park this until next year basically. We would leave the autumn games.
"Of course you always run the risk that other people are going to come through, but he's young enough that there is time here.
"It's not that he doesn't want to be with us. We totally understand the situation. Myself and John in particular, Steve Holland [England assistant coach] through his time coaching with lots of young players... we understand this journey they are going on."
I'd agree that the whole Iceland thing was poorly handled and that plays a part in why he wants to concentrate on United this year but when a player turns down call ups then some people get upset about it. Greenwood pulled out of the u17 Euros because of his GCSEs. This upset some fans because all the other players were in the same situation. Of course we don't know why he did that but it sets a narrative for some people. I really think that Southgate is defending the player here from that criticism because you can start to see this as a theme.
I don't think he is being treated differently to Foden. Foden is further on in his career and want to be called up so he is.