Yahoo Finance England v Scotland: Gareth Southgate faces Harry Maguire decision with defender fit for Euros Wembley clash
Harry Maguire will be involved in England’s Euro 2020 clash with Scotland on Friday, Gareth Southgate has confirmed.
The Manchester United centre back has declared himself fit after recovering from ankle ligament injury, and Southgate and England’s medical staff are confident he will be ready to start at Wembley.
But the Three Lions manager is still to decide whether to Maguire straight into his starting line-up after more than a month out of action.
Southgate said: “Harry will be involved tomorrow. The decision we’ve got to make is whether he is ready to start, but we are really pleased on his progress. He has trained with the team for four or five days now and had no reaction.
“Each session he is involved with, he gets more confident and I think he is on a really good path. Of course we want everybody available.
“It causes difficult decisions, but at the moment this morning we had 26 players training which is a great situation for us to be in.”
Maguire is desperate to start after fearing he would miss out on the tournament following his injury on May 9.
“I knew the extent of the injury as soon as I got injured,” he said. “I knew it was going to be pretty serious because it didn’t come from impact or contact.
“Obviously you fear the worst. I feared missing the Europa League final and then obviously the Euros as well. I managed to make this squad, but I wasn’t able to make the Europa League Final, but I’m here now and ready to go.
“I’m back available, been training and I’m looking forward to it.”
Both Southgate and Harry Kane have warned against taking Scotland lightly in a game Steve Clarke’s team are desperate to win after losing their opening fixture to Czech Republic.
Southgate said: “Our focus has been on solving the tactical problems Scotland pose. Our focus has to be on performance.
“Of course, for the fans it’s a big occasion but it’s another opportunity for three points and to move closer to qualification.”
Kane added: “We know what it means to represent England and play Scotland. We will try and use those feelings for our advantage. But our focus is on getting it tactically right.
“We have huge respect for Scotland. They have a lot of great players, a lot of experienced players.
“Andy Robertson, for one, has won the Premier League, won the Champions League.
If it wasn’t for the Czech ’keeper, Scotland could have scored goals.”
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