Gareth Southgate has warned his players to beware losing their place in his squad after an experimental England side shone against Wales, giving Tammy Abraham, Ben Chilwell and Jadon Sancho something to ponder following their breach of Covid-19 rules.
Although Abraham, Chilwell and Sancho have tested negative for coronavirus, the trio face a battle to regain their spots in the team after England demonstrated their strength in depth by securing a 3-0 friendly win over Wales on Thursday night. Abraham and Sancho could return to face Belgium in the Nations League on Sunday but Chilwell is a doubt after feeling unwell.
Southgate does not have a shortage of options and he urged the newcomers to keep the shirt. Dominic Calvert-Lewin opened the scoring on his debut, Conor Coady and Danny Ings scored their first goals at international level, Jack Grealish impressed on his first start and Bukayo Saka had a fine debut at left wing-back.
“That is in essence the really big lesson for anybody in that situation,” England’s manager said. “You want to be involved, you want to be playing. When you’ve got the shirt or the place in the squad you don’t want to allow other people the opportunity to take it.
“Whenever we give debuts or get guys who deserve their chance who have been in the squad for a while time on the pitch there’s opportunity for them to grab a place and push themselves up the pecking order. Several did that tonight and there is competition for places. Not just the squad we named, other players are outside that.”
Southgate hopes to have Abraham and Sancho available against Belgium. “Tammy and Jadon have trained independently – with us but in isolation this afternoon,” he said. “All three players have tested negatively. Ben has had some illness which we think is minor but as a precaution we’ve kept him separate from the group at the moment. There’s probably a strong chance he won’t be with us for the Uefa testing in the morning, which would rule him out for Sunday. We would expect Tammy and Jadon to be available for that.”