The FA have confirmed that Manchester United’s Harry Maguire, Manchester City’s Kyle Walker and Crystal Palace’s Sam Johnstone have all withdrawn from the England senior squad due to respective injuries.
Walker was subbed off just 20 minutes into England’s friendly defeat to Brazil at Wembley Stadium on Saturday evening, and after the game Gareth Southgate confirmed that the full-back was set to be assessed in the “coming days.” The England stalwart has now returned to Manchester City for said assessment.
Fellow veteran defender Maguire was also taken off in the defeat, coming off in the 67th minute of the game. The Man Utd centre-back had recently dealt with an injury concern but was deemed fit enough to feature against Brazil. Like Walker, Maguire has also been sent back to his club to assess what his new ailment is.
In their absence, as well as Johnstone’s, manager Southgate has opted to call Rico Lewis and James Trafford up from the under-21 set-up.
Lewis has featured once for the senior squad in the past, making his debut against North Macedonia in November, while Trafford could be in line for his first ever appearance for the senior squad when England take on Belgium at Wembley Stadium on Tuesday.
Trafford has generally struggled for form a club level in recent times, being dropped by Burnley in recent weeks, but has been a steady performance at underage level for England for a number of years.
Along with the absences of Maguire, Walker and Johnstone, Southgate will also not be able to call upon the services of star forwards Harry Kane and Bukayo Saka – both of whom missed the defeat to Brazil due to injury concerns.
