James Maddison starts for England today as Gareth Southgate deals with a late injury blow for the Euro 2024 qualifier against Ukraine.
Phil Foden misses out at Wembley, allowing the Leicester playmaker to slot in down the left wing of his 4-3-3 formation.
Luke Shaw is suspended at the back and Reece James pulled out yesterday with an injury, leading to Kyle Walker and Ben Chillwell starting in the full-back positions
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Jordan Henderson also starts, in place of Kalvin Phillips after the Liverpool man recovered from a bout of illness.
Southgate told reporters: “He hadn’t trained a lot the previous week [with Liverpool]. He had an illness which was the reason he missed Liverpool’s game the week before. So he was a little bit undercooked for that but he’s good now.”
He added: “Kalvin, that’s his first 90 [minutes] for a little while. He had 90 at Bristol City in the cup so we’ll just have to assess freshness as much as anything but that’s the same with the whole group.
“It is that time of the year and we have got to get the balance right of continuity, consistency but also freshness. It is a crucial game in the qualifying group, frankly. If we can follow what we did the other night and win this one then we are in a really good place.”
Jack Grealish is the man to drop out for Maddison with Ivan Toney again on the bench in waiting for his England debut.
Southgate said of Toney: “We really like him and he’s very much in our thoughts. You know the numbers we’ve got with us now so there’s always the dual objective: of course, a desire to see players but we are in a qualifying group where the priority is to win the game, first and foremost.”
England XI: Pickford; Walker, Stones, Maguire, Chilwell; Henderson, Rice, Bellingham; Saka, Kane, Maddison.
Subs: Trippier, Guehi, Dier, Grealish, Phillips, Gallagher, Toney, Ramsdale, Forster.
