Injury hits England World Cup camp but it won’t affect Gareth Southgate’s team selection against Panama

England National Team
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England manager Gareth Southgate was hit with some major injury news this week… when he was told he had dislocated his shoulder.

ITV broke the news during their half-time coverage of Iran vs Spain when presenter Mark Pougatch said that Southgate was on for a personal best time over 10k and presumably fell over in the woods.

Former Arsenal striker Ian Wright, who was a pundit on the panal, asked: “What’s he doing in the woods”, before bursting into laughter.

SEE ALSO: England injury news: Scan for key figure after injury concern in Tunisia win

The FA confirmed the news and published quotes from Southgate, who seemed to dealing with it well.

“I might not be celebrating any goals as athletically in future!” joked Southgate, who was seen leaping around his technical area after Harry Kane’s late header sank Tunisia on Monday night.

“The doc has made it clear that punching the air is not an option.

“We have got such a great support team and they were there very quickly. They were supposed to be relaxing because we let the players have a bit of time off and I am causing them work.”

A dislocated shoulder can be terribly painful but perhaps not as painful as losing one of your star players to a similar injury at a World Cup. Indeed, Southgate added: “It is better this is me than one of the players.”

Fortunately for England fans, this major injury will not affect team selection for Sunday’s Group G clash with Panama.

Southgate would be wise to stick in large with the same XI who played so well against Tunisia.

However, he may well have to replace Dele Alli, who left the field on Monday surrounded by fears for his fitness.

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