Gareth Southgate braced for injury to disrupt England’s World Cup plans

Gareth Southgate is braced for the “realistic” prospect of losing more of his England stars to injury in the month leading up to the World Cup in Qatar.

The mid-season tournament means the Three Lions boss faces an anxious wait to see how many of his players are fit to fly to the Middle East on November 15 right up until the weekend before.

Manchester City full-back Kyle Walker is already a doubt after undergoing groin surgery, and Southgate expects others could also miss out.

Indeed, a matter of hours after the England manager was speaking, Trent Alexander-Arnold suffered a twisted ankle in Liverpool’s defeat at Arsenal and he faces a scan to determine the severity of the problem.

“It’s not something we can control,” Southgate said after the Euro 2024 qualifying draw in Frankfurt on Sunday paired his team with Italy, Ukraine, North Macedonia and Malta.

“I’ve said all along that I’ve never bought into the theory that it’s better for us to be playing in the middle of the season than at the end, because we haven’t had a problem with playing at the end. I always felt that was a bit of a myth.

“What I see is a really packed schedule now, a lot of players playing a lot of minutes, and realistically we will lose more. I just think it’s so intense and the players have had so much football.”

Southgate, who expects to name his final squad just before the last round of Premier Leagues matches on November 13 and 14, admits an expanded 26-man group might allow him to gamble on the fitness of a couple of players, though, as he did with Jordan Henderson and Harry Maguire ahead of Euro 2020.

“It’s just working out what their core fitness levels will be, because we’ve got no friendlies, which we did have with (Euro 2020),” he added.

“Harry was six weeks from his previous game, so that sort of period of time you can just about manage. But there’s a lot of factors with the healing of the injury and the match sharpness as well.”

Southgate’s contract runs to the end of Euro 2024, but he accepts performances in Qatar will dictate whether he is still in the dugout next year for the reunion with Italy, and what he expects to be “emotional” encounters with Ukraine.

He told BBC Radio 5 Live: “I am well aware that in football you have to get results.

“So the plan is there and the desire for continuity is there too, but I also don’t take for granted that you underperform and expect to stay in that office.”

Wales appear to have a good chance of securing qualification for a third consecutive major tournament after they were drawn in Group D alongside 2018 World Cup finalists Croatia, Armenia, Turkey and Latvia.

Dragons boss Rob Page said: “I think we’re pretty pleased with the group.

“If you try to forecast what teams you’d prefer compared to others, we’re not far from it.”

Republic of Ireland coach Stephen Kenny has long touted Euro 2024 as being the tournament where he feels his team will hit their true potential, but they face a daunting task to qualify from Group B after being drawn alongside world champions France as well as the Netherlands.

Greece and Gibraltar round out the group, and Kenny said: “We’ve got to achieve something extraordinary to finish in the top two. It presents a real challenge and one that we must strive to overcome.

“I wanted it to be our destiny to get to Euro 2024. That was the big dream, that’s what we’re building the team towards.”

Northern Ireland were placed in Group H, alongside Denmark, Finland, Slovenia, Kazakhstan and San Marino.

Boss Ian Baraclough said: “I’m thinking people will look at that group and think there could be one or two surprises from it.”

Scotland, who will be pushing to qualify for a second successive Euros, will face three-time champions Spain, Erling Haaland’s Norway plus Georgia and Cyprus in Group A.

All qualifiers for Euro 2024 will be played between March and November next year, with the group winners and runners-up qualifying. A further three places will be determined in play-offs to be played in March 2024.