Full-back eases fears over injury

The Football Association is hopeful that Luke Shaw’s injury in their 2-1 Nations League defeat to Spain will not be too serious after the player was given around seven minutes of treatment on the pitch before being carried off.

Shaw, 23, had a heavy clash with Spain’s Dani Carvajal early in the second half, hit by the Real Madrid player’s arm as he back-tracked to cut-out a long diagonal pass. He appeared to fall heavily,

Medical staff tended to the motionless full-back for several minutes, administering oxygen and covering his eyes before carefully placing him on a stretcher.

At one point, they waved away concerned team-mates. Sky declined to show replays of the incident, in which Carvajal appeared blameless.

Shaw was replaced on 53 minutes by Tottenham’s Danny Rose. He was later reported to be awake in the dressing -room and using his phone.

Shaw, who has had a difficult recovery from a bad leg break three years against PSV Eindhoven in the Champions League, and has often been singled out for criticism by Jose Mourinho, had played a key role in the game, which England lost 2-1.

He set up United team-mate Marcus Rashford with a delicate through ball in a sweeping England move to open the scoring on 11 minutes.

But Spain hit back within a minute through Saul Niguez, and Rodrigo took advantage of defensive uncertainty to put the visitors ahead on 32 minutes when he beat the offside trap at a freekick. England piled on the pressure, with Rashford coming close, but their first match since the World Cup, where they reached the semi-final before losing to Croatia, ended in defeat.