England will hope to make it two wins in two when they face Group G rivals Panama on Sunday, but Dele Alli might not be fit enough to feature.
Gareth Southgate’s side impressed against Tunisia in parts, but ultimately the result was the most important thing as they kicked off their World Cup campaign with three points.
They’ll hope to follow that up with another victory against Panama, a game in which they’ll be highly fancied to claim a win, but they may have to do so without Alli.
The Tottenham ace appeared to be moving gingerly in the first half of the win over Tunisia, but he managed to stay on the pitch for the majority of the game before being replaced after 80 minutes.
In turn, that would suggest that the problem isn’t too serious, but according to Sky Sports, he has a ‘slim chance’ of featuring against Panama, as per Southgate.
It’s noted that the England ace didn’t train with the rest of the group again on Friday morning, and so that would seemingly raise major doubts over his ability to make a full recovery and be deemed fit enough to start or even come off the bench.
There is an argument to be made that England shouldn’t even risk seeing Alli aggravate the problem this weekend and rest him for their last group game against Belgium if he’s needed.
With Ruben Loftus-Cheek coming off the bench against Tunisia, coupled with attacking options such as Marcus Rashford who also failed to make the starting line-up last time out, England boss Southgate does have options at his disposal but given Alli’s attacking threat, creativity and energy in the middle, he’ll undoubtedly be keen to see the 22-year-old return as soon as possible.