England forward Jamie Vardy is “looking doubtful” to be able to face Sweden in the World Cup quarterfinal on Saturday, said coach Gareth Southgate, who also expressed concerned over “two or three” other players.
Vardy, who entered as a substitute against Colombia in the round of 16, picked up a groin strain and needed an injection, leaving him uncertain for the next game.
Southgate compared the trainer’s room to a “scene from M*A*S*H*”, though he also believes that the other seven teams left in the competition have similar concerns.nike jerseys nfl cheap
“Vardy didn’t train today, so is looking doubtful for this game,” Southgate said on Thursday. “But we’ll know a bit more tomorrow, really. The others were all on the pitch. We didn’t do a lot.
“I think at this stage, minimal time on the pitch, a lot of our information is going to have to be in meetings. Because it really is as much about recovery, physical and psychological, as everything else.
“The downside of that is we can’t push the players enough today to see whether they’re OK. So we’ll know more tomorrow. We’ll have to make late decisions. I think every team will be in the same boat on that.”
Southgate was more confident on the fitness of Dele Alli, Ashley Young and Kyle Walker, however.
“Dele was absolutely fine after the game, didn’t feel anything. I think the extra couple of days were really helpful for him,” Southgate said. “Had he gone into the last one a bit earlier he might have come out of the game feeling something. He was fine.
“Young and Walker, we’ve no reason to believe they’re serious issues. They were back on their feet today. But equally there might be a couple of others, who until they’re extending themselves a bit more.
“I think when you’ve had a long game like that, you don’t know until you’ve really started to extend in training again exactly what you might be carrying.cheap nfl jerseys china nike
“But our feeling is, certainly nothing serious, but two or three in particular that we’ve probably got to assess quite closely tomorrow and see exactly what level they’re at. Again, because we’ve got good players to come in.
“So if we’ve got players that are 75 percent, then the guys who haven’t been in the team deserve to come in and be at 100 percent.”
