WEMBLEY STADIUM — England manager Gareth Southgate says that Jordan Henderson has added to his options in midfield after the Liverpool captain played his first competitive match in four months.
The midfielder has been out since February with a groin injury and would have started at Euro 2020 if he was fit, but has been forced to spend the first two games on the bench.
Southgate helped his vice-captain back to fitness with minutes in a warm-up friendly against Romania, but coming on in the second half of the 1-0 win against the Czech Republic was Henderson’s first competitive action.
Harry Maguire also made his first start since injuring his ankle for Manchester United.
“Jordan has been out for longer [than Harry Maguire]”, Southgate said. “It will be great for him to get 45 minutes. He’ll be better for that and adds to our options going forwards.”
Southgate insists that he does not yet know his starting line-up for England’s last 16 game next Tuesday and will assess the squad during the next week in the build-up to the game.
“The first thing is it’s great to have a couple of days to recover the players,” he said. “A few of them have had a heavy load in the last week or so after a long season. We’ve got to make sure we don’t overdo it.
“We’re still improving. We look difficult to play against. There’s more to come from us. That squad depth is going to be important. I felt we’d run out of steam in a couple of games and to be able to make the substitutions has been really helpful.”
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from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/2SVdJ0B
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