England have to wait on duo
NATHANIEL Chalobah and Nathan Redmond were facing a race against time to be fit for England Under 21s’ Euro 2017 semi-final against Germany tonight.
The Young Lions are hopeful the duo will be available but they trained away from the main group yesterday after coming off in Thursday’s 3-0 win over hosts Poland.
Chelsea midfielder Chalobah has a suspected groin problem while the England camp have not specified what is wrong with Southampton winger Redmond.
They are being assessed by the medical team ahead of the game in Tychy.
England, who are now based in Krakow, qualified for the knock-out stages for the first time since 2009 after winning Group A.
They beat Slovakia and Poland having drawn their opening game 0-0 with holders Sweden.
The rest of Aidy Boothroyd’s side trained with Will Hughes and Jacob Murphy ready to replace Chalobah and Redmond.
The pair came on for them against Poland with Norwich winger Murphy scoring the second goal.
The semi-final is a repeat of the 2009 final which Germany won 4-0. ■■Crystal Palace have announced Frank de Boer as their new manager.
The Dutchman, 47, has signed a three-year deal with the Eagles to succeed Sam Allardyce at Selhurst Park after the former England boss resigned at the end of last season having kept Palace in the Premier League.
De Boer, who was unveiled at the club’s Beckenham training ground on Monday afternoon, is confident he can have an impact on the English top flight, having seen his tenure at Inter Milan cut short in November after just 14 matches in charge.
“I had a good feeling about the club and the prospect of managing a team in the Premier league was exciting,” the former Ajax, Barcelona and Rangers defender said at a press conference flanked by Palace chairman Steve Parish. ■■Jersey’s appeal against UEFA’s decision to deny them membership of European football’s governing body is set to be heard by the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne tomorrow.
UEFA rejected the Jersey FA’s application last year, chiefly on the grounds that Jersey is not recognised as an independent state by the United Nations.
But Jersey officials are convinced they have a strong legal argument centred around UEFA’s refusal last year to allow the application to go to a vote of the 55 existing UEFA nations. ■■Mario Balotelli has signed a new one-year contract with Nice.
The former Manchester City striker, who joined the French club on a free transfer from Liverpool in August, scored 15 Ligue 1 goals in 2016-17 as Lucien Favre’s side finished third.