England manager Gareth Southgate will have to go without three key players for Saturday’s meeting with Brazil.
The Three Lions face The Seleção in a friendly international at Wembley with kick-off scheduled for 7pm GMT, before hosting Belgium at the same venue on Tuesday.
It will be Southgate‘s last chance to assess his players before picking his final 23-man squad for this summer’s Euro 2024 tournament in Germany.
However, the 53-year-old won’t be able to call upon England‘s record goalscorer after Harry Kane was ruled out of the Brazil game with an ankle injury. It is “extremely doubtful” he will feature against Belgium.
Additionally, Chelsea‘s Cole Palmer and former Liverpool midfielder Jordan Henderson won’t play against the Brazilians, although Southgate is hopeful they will be available for selection against Belgium.
“In terms of injury news its no Kane, no Palmer, no Henderson tomorrow, with Kane also a doubt for Belgium on Tuesday,” he said.
“I would say Cole and Hendo have a better chance of Belgium than Harry, he’d be extremely doubtful for that.”
Asked what it says about Kane that he wants to be with the camp despite likely missing both matches, Southgate responded: “It has increasingly become the culture.
“Bukayo (Saka) had a couple of days with this as well. Hendo is obviously doing everything he can to be available.
“Sometimes I think people think, ‘oh, they’re not fit, they’re ruled out of both games’ but you have a few more days until the second game and you always want to try to use that time if we can.
“So, we’ll see where those boys get to, but it’s of course great when your captain sets that example.”
