FA’s ‘amazing’ psychologist set to quit

DR PIPPA GRANGE, the sports psychologist who played an integral part in England’s success at the last World Cup, could soon be leaving the FA. Wembley insiders insisted last night that Grange — described by Dele Alli last summer as an ‘amazing person’ — had neither been sacked nor resigned. But the future of the 48-year-old, who only joined 14 months ago as the FA’s head of people and team development, does suddenly appear to be uncertain. It remains unclear if any decision to move on has been influenced by Les Reed’s recent arrival as technical director, replacing Dan Ashworth. But a psychologist to work specifically with Gareth Southgate’s squad — Grange is the head of her department but is ultimately answerable to Reed — has already been recruited and Dr Ian Mitchell will be with England for the Euro 2020 qualifiers against the Czech Republic this Friday and Montenegro on Monday.