Injured Alli a doubt for Panama match
Scan reveals midfielder has minor muscle strain Southgate in dilemma over retaining Sterling
FOOTBALL NEWS CORRESPONDENT in Volgograd
Dele Alli is a doubt for England’s second World Cup Group G game against Panama after a scan confirmed he suffered a minor strain in the victory over Tunisia.
Midfielder Alli missed yesterday’s training session and travelled to a private hospital in St Petersburg to be checked. The England players have been given today off but Alli may not be able to train tomorrow, which would leave him in a race against time to face Panama.
Even if he is passed fit later in the week, manager Gareth Southgate could still opt to rest Alli on Sunday rather than taking any risks over his fitness, with Ruben LoftusCheek and Fabian Delph competing to replace him.
Alli suffered the injury in the first half of the victory over Tunisia, but opted to stay on until the 80th minute, when he was replaced by Loftus- Cheek.
Southgate is also facing a huge dilemma over Raheem Sterling as he starts preparations for England’s next match.
Sterling missed an early chance in the victory over Tunisia and was later replaced by Marcus Rashford, who helped England to clinch their stoppage-time winner.
Telegraph Sport understands Southgate had already been considering replacing Sterling with Rashford for Sunday’s game against Panama as part of his squad rotation through the tournament.
But the manager must now decide whether to stick to that plan and risk damaging Sterling’s confidence, or change his idea to give the Manchester City forward another chance.
Sterling’s confidence was an issue for Roy Hodgson at Euro 2016, with the player describing himself as “the hated one”. Southgate and his squad have worked hard to protect him, following pre-world Cup criticism over the 23-year-old’s gun tattoo.
“I think for Raheem, I was really pleased with the performance he gave,” said Southgate.
“His movement, his touch, there were a lot of fouls in the game and a lot of them were on him. That bought us more pressure because we were able to get more setplays into their box, so I thought the movement of the front four and the two boys that came on was a real problem for Tunisia.” Sterling’s miss meant that he has still only scored two goals for England, having last netted for his country against Estonia in October 2015. Alli also only has two England goals, having last scored in October 2016, while Jesse Lingard has scored once for his country.
Rashford has only three England goals, but scored with a superb strike in the final warm-up game against Costa Rica to put pressure on Sterling. Asked about being a substitute on Monday, Rashford said: “You need the squad to win the tournament and that’s what we’re here trying to do, so it’s not the be all and end all if you’re on the bench for one game.
“We understand that it is going to have to be a team effort if we want to bring the trophy home.”
On the lack of goals among his attacking players, other than captain Harry Kane, Southgate said: “I was really pleased that we made clearcut openings against Tunisia and, of course, the next step for us is to finish them.
“But I’m proud of the way the young team performed with confidence on this stage and not arrogance, which was important.”
Asked whether he would now focus more on his players’ finishing in the build-up to the Panama clash, Southgate added: “We won’t do anything different to what we have done in the last three weeks.”