Gareth Southgate believes John Stones is ‘probably OK’, despite the defender being substituted during England’s 1-0 friendly defeat to Iceland on Friday.
Stones took a blow to the ankle within the first minute but managed to stay on until half-time as the Three Lions floundered in their final Euro 2024 warm-up match at Wembley.
The Manchester City star was replaced by Aston Villa’s Ezri Konsa after the break. Given Stones has started every single match for England at their last three major tournaments, many fans were left concerned with the group stage opener against Serbia just nine days away.
Stones, especially, is a player Southgate will monitor closely after he once again struggled for fitness this season, playing just 16 Premier League matches for City in 2023/24.
However, Southgate was quite positive about Stones’ prospects after the match.
“We think he’s probably okay but we didn’t want to take a chance given what’s coming up,” the Three Lions boss told Channel 4.
Southgate insists England ‘will be ready’ for Euro 2024
Losing 1-0 to a nation ranked 72nd in the world and managing just one shot on target compared to your opponent’s four is not the way England wanted to end their Euro 2024 warm-up schedule.
Now, the Three Lions will head to Germany as they prepare to face Serbia in Gelsenkirchen a week on Sunday, with many fans left worried about their team’s prospects.
But Southgate remains bullish and insists England ‘will be ready’ to contend this summer.
“We’ll be ready,” Southgate insisted. “Tonight hasn’t gone as we would have hoped. I said to the players that not every day will go as you want and tonight was one of those.
“But also not everything will be wrong, we had enough chances really to win the game but we conceded too many chances as well.”
Source link : https://www.caughtoffside.com/2024/06/07/gareth-southgate-john-stones-injury-update-england/
Author : CJ
Publish date : 2024-06-07 21:34:31
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