England face ‘complicated’ squad choice

GARETH Southgate says he is facing a “complicated” Euro 2024 selection choice given England’s potential fitness and availability issues heading into the summer.

This is the first time since the

2018 World Cup that the 57-cap former defender is having to pick a 23-man squad for a major tournament after it was expanded to 26 following the Covid-19 pandemic.

But Southgate could name even more than that at the provisional squad announcement on May 21 as the England boss will have injury concerns to deal with and the late arrival of key players.

The final squad does not have to be submitted to UEFA until late on June 7, but cup final participation is set to dent numbers for the warm-up friendlies against Bosnia in Newcastle and Iceland at Wembley.

Asked how many extra headaches returning to a 23-man squad will throw up, Southgate said: “Yeah, it’s going to be complicated, because firstly the injury situations that we have.

“Some will be back playing at the weekend, some will be back playing in a couple of weeks, some will be really close to the end of the season.

“Then we’re going to have the European finals, the FA Cup final and the two friendlies that we’ve got.

“It’s inevitable we’re going to be naming a longer squad. We really don’t know (how many will be in the provisional squad) because there are so many questions on the injuries at the moment. But we’ve gained valuable information about so many players this this week.”

Absentee-hit England suffered their first defeat in 15 months in Saturday’s late 1-0 loss Brazil at Wembley, where Jude Bellingham scored an even later goal to salvage a 2-2 draw against Belgium.

Bukayo Saka, Harry Kane, Harry Maguire, Kyle Walker and Sam Johnstone all withdrew from the squad over the course of the camp, with Jordan Henderson unable to feature in either match.

“I had a plan on Saturday night for Tuesday that got blown apart in 12 hours, so to have a plan for something in two and a half months’ time at the moment is faintly ridiculous,” Southgate said.

Newcastle’s Anthony Gordon, Ezri Konsa and Kobbie Mainoo all made their debuts, with Ivan Toney registering his first goal against Belgium on his first international start. The quartet boosted their chances of making the plane to Germany, with 18-year-old Mainoo’s stock arguably growing the highest.

“He gives us a different profile of midfield player to anything else we’ve got,” Southgate said.