Gareth Southgate has confirmed that England will be without Marcus Rashford for Friday's game against Czech Republic.
Rashford was not part of the group that trained at St. George’s Park this morning and has now been ruled out of the Three Lions’ opening UEFA Euro 2020 qualifier as well as Monday’s game in Montenegro – so he has now returned to Manchester United.
“Marcus has been with us all week and arrived with a problem with his foot,” Southgate said.
“Unfortunately it hasn’t progressed enough for us to think he’s going to have a chance to play on Monday, so we’ve decided the best thing for him to do now is to go back to his club.”
The 21-man squad have arrived in London, with Southgate being joined by Jordan Pickford in facing the media on Thursday evening.
And the boss says that the Everton goalkeeper – who has started England’s last 11 competitive games – will retain his place in the team for tomorrow’s match despite competition from the returning Tom Heaton.
“It’s clear that Jordan has been excellent for us over the last 12 months and there was never any question in my mind,” Southgate affirmed.
“I think every player in the squad has had good games and games where they’ve not been quite so good. Jordan has been the same, but I think he’s our best goalkeeper currently and looking forward to building on what he has done with us so far.”
England vs Czech Republic will be played in front of a sold-out crowd at Wembley Stadium – if you’ve missed out, tickets for September’s game against Bulgaria go on general sale via TheFA.com/Tickets at midday on Friday.
