Southgate shoulders the pain

ENGLAND manager Gareth Southgate suffered a dislocated shoulder in a running accident in Repino yesterday. Southgate lost his footing during his daily jog and fell to the ground. His elbow is understood to have taken the majority of the force of the impact but he dislocated his right shoulder in the process. Speaking last night, he managed to see the funny side, saying: ‘I might not be celebrating any goals as athletically in future. The doc has made it clear that punching the air is not an option.’ After the fall, Southgate went immediately to hospital — accompanied by team doctor Rob Chakraverty — where he was treated and his arm

placed in a sling. His arm is likely to remain in the sling until at least Sunday’s clash against Panama at Nizhny Novgorod and possibly the start of next week. Southgate, who had given his players a day off, was back at the team hotel in time to address his squad at a meeting in the early evening. He has been on regular runs since England’s arrival in Russia on June 12, but has usually gone in the morning. The England manager is expected to lead today’s training session despite the injury. ‘We have got such a great support team and they were there very quickly,’ he continued. ‘They were supposed to be relaxing because we let the players have a bit of time off and I am causing them work. I am just sorry that I managed to ruin their day off. ‘It is better this is me than one of the players. They were a bit surprised in the team meeting. They were probably quite amused. ‘It is good that we have had a quiet day today so I had prepared the meeting before and we are on to preparations for Panama. I am just a bit gutted because I was on for my record 10k time!’