England must beat Greece tonight to stand any chance of gaining automatic promotion to the top tier of the Nations League.
But the Three Lions must avert a Greek tragedy without a whole raft of key players after no less than nine stars withdrew from the squad through injury in the build-up to the crunch clash in Athens.
Bukayo Saka, Declan Rice, Cole Palmer, Levi Colwill, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Phil Foden, Jack Grealish, Aaron Ramsdale and Jarrad Branthwaite join the rest of us in watching the League B Group 2 game from home.
Saka and Rice were both withdrawn in the latter stages of the Gunners’ 1-1 draw with Chelsea on Sunday, with Rice departing after playing through the pain with a broken toe and Saka leaving the field after suffering a blow to his leg.
Palmer, who only trained twice in the week after picking up a knock against Manchester United last weekend, played the full 90 on Sunday but will play no part for the beaten Euro 2024 finalists in the Greek capital, who will be looking to avenge last month’s dismal 2-1 defeat at Wembley.
Alexander-Arnold, who had to be subbed off after just 25 minutes against Aston Villa, is expected to be sidelined for two weeks after picking up a hamstring strain.
Grealish has missed Manchester City’s last six games and has been released from England duty along with teammate Foden following an assessment at St. George’s Park.
Ramsdale, who’s last England cap came in a 1-0 loss to Iceland before Euro 2024, picked up a finger injury during Southampton’s 2-0 defeat against Wolves on Saturday.
In their place, Lee Carsley has handed a first senior call-up to Aston Villa midfielder Morgan Rogers who has impressed under Unai Emery since joining from Middlesborough last January.
Jarrod Bowen has also returned to the Three Lions set-up, as has Tino Livramento and James Trafford who are both yet to receive a senior cap.
And Branthwaite, who himself was originally drafted in as a replacement for Colwill, has been forced to leave the England camp early having failed to shake off a problem which has plagued him in the opening stretch of the Premier League season.
In his place comes Liverpool’s Jarell Quansah, who is yet to make his senior England debut – although he was called up to England’s provisional Euro 2024 squad earlier this year before being omitted from the final list.
The mass withdrawals have seemingly not gone down well with England captain Harry Kane, who fears some of his international colleagues ‘have taken advantage’ of minor knocks in order to have the fortnight spent resting with their clubs instead.
‘The joy to play for England – he [Southgate] brought that back,’ the Bayern Munich striker told ITV. ‘Every camp people were excited to come, every camp people wanted to play for England.
‘That’s the most important thing. England comes before anything. England comes before club. England, it’s is the most important thing you play as a professional footballer. Gareth was hot on that.
‘He wasn’t afraid to make decisions if that started to drift from certain players. It’s a shame this week. Obviously it’s a tough period of the season.
‘Maybe there’s been a little taking advantage of that. I don’t really like it if I’m totally honest. England comes before anything, before any club situation.’
After their trip to Athens, England return to Wembley to face the Republic of Ireland on Sunday.
Despite agreeing to become the permanent successor to Gareth Southgate, Thomas Tuchel will not be in the dugout for these two games with the former Chelsea boss set to take over properly in the New Year.
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