Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
England settle into their camp
GARETH Southgate will hope England’s l uck on injuries holds out, with Marcus Rashford carrying a “slight knock”.
England landed in St Petersburg yesterday afternoon before heading off to their secluded training base in Repino and embarked on their first training session today.
The squad is set to be put through their paces in front of t he media when t he e x t e n t o f R a s h f o r d ’s problem, reportedly a minor knee complaint suffered by the Manchester United forward during a final training session, is expected to become clearer.
“Marcus took a slight knock but nothing t oo serious, so we will have a look at that ahead of today’s session, which is open for everybody to see, but other than that, everybody came through fine,” Southgate said.
“Across three weeks, we have been really pleased to get the 23 we picked through all of the sessions.”
The England boss added he would “probably know” his starting XI for the Group G opener against Tunisia in Volgograd on June 18 “if it was tomorrow” but insisted there was still plenty of time for players to stake their claim.
Southgate hopes t he atmosphere in Repino, on the Gulf of Finland and less than an hour away from St Petersburg, can help continue the squad’s growing positive mindset.
“We like the town and we l i k e S t P e t e r s b u r g ,” Southgate said.