Jordan Henderson is poised to make his first start of the World Cup - as he revealed speaking to Sadio Mane after his former Liverpool team-mate was ruled out of the tournament through injury.
Henderson is set to be given a midfield role in England's final Group B game match against Wales on Tuesday evening, where victory will assure the Three Lions of first place.
The 32-year-old sat out the 6-2 win over Iran but was introduced during the second half to help Gareth Southgate's side secure a goalless draw against the United States on Friday, becoming only the fourth player to appear in six different major international tournaments for England.
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By contrast, Liverpool talisman Mohamed Salah failed to qualify for the finals in Qatar after Egypt were beaten in a play-off by Senegal, for whom Mane is missing after suffering an injury on the eve of the tournament.
And of the duo's absence, Henderson said: "I haven't spoken to Mo to be honest. He's enjoying his holiday somewhere, I'm sure. He will be very disappointed that his team and he didn't get to come to the World Cup. The best players in the world want to play in the World Cup and he's certainly one of them.
"Obviously, for Sadio it was a huge disappointment. I spoke to him when I heard about his injury and he was very disappointed he couldn't make it. I know what Sadio is like as a person and if there was a small chance he would definitely have given it a go, so it must have been a pretty bad injury. I hope he recovers well and gets another opportunity in the future."
England were jeered by some travelling supporters after the dour stalemate against the USA, and Henderson added: "Tournament football gives you that. We expect big things from ourselves and so do the fans given what we've done over the last few years. That's just part and parcel of football, really. It's how you deal with it. It's going to be emotional, you are going to have different challenges in front of you, certainly in tournament football. Hopefully we can deal with them in the right way."
In a further nod to his potential involvement, Henderson was sat alongside Southgate speaking on Monday evening ahead of the game at the Al Rayyan Stadium. With England having to lose by at least four goals to prevent progress to the last 16, Southgate is likely to ring the changes further with Liverpool's Trent Alexander-Arnold pressing hard for the right-back role.
And the England boss said: "We have got to balance freshness with stability. We have a chance to win the group with a positive result. There's a lot for both teams resting on this game.
"We are going to pick a team we believe can win the game. Harry Kane is fine in terms of the knock he has, it's his foot that got injured, not his ankle. He has trained well and Ben White is the only player missing through illness.
"We have pretty much every available for selection which is a great position for us to be in. It makes decisions difficult of course but you want a fully-fit squad and that's where we are at."
Alexander-Arnold and Everton centre-back Conor Coady are among nine players in the England squad yet to feature in the finals, and Southgate added: "It's always a challenge to keep players happy and we have 26 players. But we are at a major tournament and it's not about giving caps out, we are here to go as far as we possibly can.
"Of course, players will be disappointed if they are not playing. When we have other camps throughout the year we try to manage minutes and give people game time where we possibly can because that builds the spirit. But when you're in a World Cup you can't be thinking that way unless you're already qualified and you have a game that allows a slightly different approach.
"We are fortunate we have really good professionals who get on with that."
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