James Ward Prowse
SAINTS skipper James Ward-Prowse still has a chance for a late England Euro 2020 call-up after Trent Alexander-Arnold was ruled out of the tournament. The Liverpool defender suffered a thigh injury in Wednesday’s friendly win over Austria. Alexander-Arnold limped off in the closing stages of the 1-0 victory, with Three Lions boss Gareth Southgate offering a grim prognosis immediately after the game. His fears were realised when scans revealed the extent of Alexander-Arnold’s injury – with the Football Association confirming his withdrawal on Thursday.
A statement said: “Trent Alexander-Arnold has been ruled out of UEFA EURO 2020. The Liverpool player sustained a thigh injury in the closing stages of Wednesday’s 1-0 win against Austria in Middlesbrough. A scan on Thursday confirmed the 22-year-old will be unable to play in the forthcoming tournament so he has withdrawn from the England squad to return to his club for rehabilitation. Gareth Southgate will not confirm a replacement until after Sunday’s return to the Riverside Stadium for the warm-up fixture against Romania.”
Ward-Prowse is now one of the five outfield players on standby waiting to discover if they will be selected to replace Alexander-Arnold in the squad. Defenders Ben White and Ben Godfrey, who both made their debuts off the bench against Austria, as well as Jesse Lingard and Ollie Watkins are the others who Southgate can call upon. Saints skipper Ward-Prowse and the other players in contention to make the squad could still feature in Sunday’s warm-up fixture against Romania.
Gareth Southgate said: “All the (omitted) players are going to stay with us through to the end of Sunday’s game anyway. Obviously we’ll make an assessment on the whole squad once we’ve got through that game. I’m very conscious we’ve got another 90 minutes to get through and that alone is a bit of a challenge for us, really.”
England face Croatia in Group D of the tournament on Sunday, June 13. They are then set to take on Scotland on Friday, June 18 and Czech Republic on June 22. All three of their group fixtures are at Wembley.
