Gareth Southgate has warned his missing Manchester United contingent that they face a battle to regain their places for the World Cup as he looked ahead to the challenges of an unprecedented mid-season tournament, which begins on 21 November.
The England manager is preparing for the fourth and last game of the end-of-season Nations League programme against Hungary at Molineux on Tuesday night. But his thoughts are increasingly focused on fine-tuning his squad for Qatar – expected to number 26 players rather than the usual 23 – and how he will manage what he called the “strange lead-in” to the finals.
