Jadon Sancho is in doubt for England’s World Cup qualifier against Hungary on Thursday evening after suffering a minor injury in training.
The Manchester United forward joined the rest of the Gareth Southgate squad at St George’s Park on Tuesday after beating Wolves 1-0 in the Premier League.
“We have a little knock with Jadon this morning so we’re going to investigate,” Southgate said on Wednesday afternoon. “Everyone else is fine.”
Dominic Calvert-Lewin retired from the squad earlier this week and returned to Everton for ongoing treatment for a broken toe and was not replaced.
Southgate will otherwise be able to draw on a full squad of players in England’s first game since the painful European Championship final defeat on penalties against Italy.
England have taken maximum points from their three games in Group I and are well positioned to reach the Qatar finals in 2022.
At the beginning of the year, the Hungarian Football Association was banned from playing two games in a stadium due to repeated “discriminatory behavior” including racist insults by fans during the games.
However, the Ferenc Puskas Arena will be full on Thursday evening as the ban only applies to Uefa competitions and not to FIFA World Cup qualifying.
The English players will kneel before kick-off, as they did during the Euro this summer, and could leave the pitch if their players are abused from the stands under Uefa’s three-step protocol.
However, Southgate was reluctant to speculate on whether its players would need to take such action.
“I don’t think we should speak hypothetically,” he said. “We know the experience we’ve had before, but we’re going to Hungary and preparing for a game against an audience that is behind their team and we’re looking forward to the challenge of the game. Everything else is really speculation. “
