England boss Gareth Southgate conducted training on Sunday without a host of players, three of whom were injured, ahead of the Three Lions clash with Bosnia on Monday
England had seven players missing at training on Sunday, with three of those injury concerns – Harry Maguire among them.
The squad continue to prepare for their upcoming friendlies ahead of their Euro 2024 campaign. But they trained without Manchester United duo Maguire and Luke Shaw at Middlesbrough’s Rockliffe Park headquarters on Sunday. The latter has endured a lengthy injury and Gareth Southgate has admitted he’s in a race against time to make the tournament.
Anthony Gordon was the third player to sit out. The Newcastle winger has enjoyed the best season of his career to date but is not a guarantee to be on the plane. Gordon has an ankle issue and worked on an individual training plan. Southgate has also confirmed that John Stones and Bukayo Saka will be missing for tomorrow night’s game.
Kobbie Mainoo, Phil Foden, Kyle Walker and Jude Bellingham were all missing as they were given extended breaks as their club commitments went on beyond many of their colleagues. Bellingham has just landed the Champions League and he will join the squad in the early part of next week alongside the other three.
Harry Kane has continued to work towards full fitness. The 30-year-old Bayern Munich striker missed the final two games of his club’s season with a back injury, which he picked up in the Champions League semi-final second-leg defeat by Real Madrid.
Bosnia will head to Newcastle’s St James’ Park on Monday, meeting with England for the first time in a competitive or non-competitive setting. After that Southgate’s squad will return to their usual Wembley base for the visit of Iceland next Friday.
The England boss called up a preliminary squad of 33 players so that he could get a closer look at several players, some of whom are uncapped. His final squad must be trimmed down to a minimum of 23 and a maximum of 26 players by June 7.
Southgate said when he named his squad: “The job is here to adapt to the situations you have and they are the cards you dealt with. The consequences you are dealt with. The injuries are a complex thing, they are not one of the things you spoke about, but they could be a lot of those things.
“Some have played a lot of football, some have come back earlier than they could’ve been. A lot of matches in the calendar. It’s too easy to say winter World Cup or this or that. There’s players with better injury records than others, training intensities.
“Everyone wants simple solutions, but it isn’t that.”
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