Jadon Sancho injury: Manchester United forward doubt for England vs Hungary

Sancho suffered ‘small knock’ in training on Wedensday morning

Mark Critchley
Northern Football Correspondent
Wednesday 01 September 2021 20:05 BST
Comments
The England attacker during training session at St George’s Park
The England attacker during training session at St George’s Park (FA/Getty)

Support truly
independent journalism

Our mission is to deliver unbiased, fact-based reporting that holds power to account and exposes the truth.

Whether $5 or $50, every contribution counts.

Support us to deliver journalism without an agenda.

Louise Thomas

Louise Thomas

Editor

Jadon Sancho is a doubt for England’s World Cup qualifier against Hungary on Thursday evening after picking up a minor injury in training.

The Manchester United forward joined up with the rest of Gareth Southgate's squad at St George's Park on Tuesday, following the 1-0 Premier League win over Wolves.

“We've got a small knock with Jadon this morning so we're going to assess him,” Southgate said on Wednesday afternoon. "Everyone else is fine.”

Dominic Calvert-Lewin withdrew from the squad earlier this week, returning to Everton to for ongoing treatment on a broken toe injury, and has not been replaced.

Southgate will otherwise have a full squad of players to choose from in England’s first game since their painful European Championship final defeat on penalties to Italy.

England have taken maximum points from their three games in Group I and are well-placed to reach the 2022 finals in Qatar, though travel to face a Hungary side that is also unbeaten.

The Hungarian Football Federation were handed a two-game stadium ban earlier this year for repeated “discriminatory behaviour” including racial abuse by supporters during games.

The Ferenc Puskas Arena will be full on Thursday night, however, as the ban only applies to Uefa competitions and not Fifa’s World Cup qualifiers.

The England players will take the knee before kick-off, as they did throughout this summer’s Euros, and could walk off the pitch if their players suffer abuse from the stands under Uefa’s three-step protocol.

Southgate, however, was reluctant to speculate over whether his players would need to take such measures.

“I don't think we should speak hypothetically,” he said. “We know the experience we had before but we're going into Hungary preparing for a game against a crowd that will get behind their team and we're looking forward to the challenge of the match. Everything else is speculation really.”

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in