Southgate’s hands are tied ahead of Portugal trip

England’ s Nations League Finals preparations will be a voyage into the unknown for Gareth South gate, with a swathe of players absent for the build-up and captain Harry Kane battling to be fit.

Having reached the World Cup semi-finals last summer, England will have another shot at silver ware in next month’ s inaugural final sin Portugal.

But the groundwork for the Nations League semifinal against the Netherlands on 6 June could scarcely be much different to last year’s thanks to Uefa’s bewildering scheduling.

South gate will be without ten players until the eve of the tournament as Chelsea face Arsenal in the Europa League showpiece before the Champions League final b et ween Tottenham and Liverpool on Saturday 1 June.

With Manchester City’s FA Cup finalists and B orussia Dortmund winger Jadon Sancho getting extra time off, South gate will have only 12 of his 27-strong preliminary selection available when the squad meets up at St George’s Park on Tuesday.

Chelsea pair Callum HudsonOdoi and Ruben Loftus-cheek have missed out through injury, while an expanded squad offers padding should there be other withdrawals. A big question mark hangs over Spurs striker Kane, pictured, five weeks on from ankle ligament damage. “That is one of the unknowns,” Southgate said.

Luke Shaw and James Tarkowski were overlooked, but Joe Gomez, Jesse Lingard, James Ward-prowse and Nathan Redmond make the cut.