DON’T CELEBRATE!
Crocked Southgate warned by doctor
ENGLAND manager Gareth Southgate suffered a dislocated shoulder in a running accident here yesterday.
He lost his footing during his daily jog from the team’s World Cup hotel and fell to the ground. It is understood that his elbow took most of the force of the impact, but he dislocated his right shoulder during the incident.
But last night Southgate managed to see the funny side. ‘I might not be celebrating any goals as athletically in future,’ he said. ‘ The doctor has made it clear that punching the air is not an option.’
After the fall, Southgate went straight to hospital — accompanied by team doctor Rob Chakraverty — where he was treated and his
arm placed in a sling. The injured arm is likely to remain in the sling for at least Sunday’s clash against Panama at Nizhny Novgorod and possibly the start of next week. Southgate, who had given his players a day off, was back at the team hotel in time to address the side at a planned squad meeting in the early evening. Southgate has been on regular runs since England’s arrival in Russia on June 12, but has usually gone out in the morning. The England manager is expected to lead today’s training session despite the injury. Southgate said: ‘We have got such a great support team and they were there very quickly. They were supposed to be relaxing because we let the players have a bit of time off and I am causing them work. We are lucky we have a top-class medical team around us, so it was fine. ‘I had brilliant help from them, and I am just sorry that I managed to ruin their day off. ‘It is better this is me than one of the players. They were a bit surprised in the team meeting and were asking, “What have you been doing?” — as always, they were probably quite amused. ‘It is good that we have had a quiet day today so I had prepared the meeting before and we are on to preparations for Panama. I am just a bit gutted because I was on for my record 10km time!’