Gareth Southgate’s men kick off their World Cup preparations with back-to-back Wembley matches against the international heavyweight teams over the coming week. Tottenham’s Dele Alli, Harry Kane and Harry Winks have already withdrawn from the initial 25-man squad, with England receiving three further setbacks yesterday.
Henderson had been due to arrive for training later in the week after missing Liverpool’s win against West Ham with a thigh problem. City winger Sterling is out with a back complaint and Delph — looking for his first England cap since November 2015 — injured his calf towards the end of Sunday’s win against Arsenal.
Alli, Kane and Winks have already pulled out with injury issues of their own, with Southgate bringing in Michael Keane and Jake Livermore. More faces will likely be drafted in by the England boss ahead of Friday’s friendly against Germany but Chelsea defender Gary Cahill was set to train yesterday. England, who play Brazil on November 14, are already missing Adam Lallana, Danny Welbeck, Nathaniel Chalobah, Tom Heaton and Ross Barkley. Southgate had plumped for a bold squad, with Tammy Abraham, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Joe Gomez called up for the first time as Daniel Sturridge, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Chris Smalling were overlooked.
Abraham has no regrets about Nigeria snub
Abraham says he never considered playing for Nigeria at international level despite repeated overtures from the Nigerian Football Federation. Abraham’s father is Nigerian and a childhood friend of Nigerian federation president Amaju Pinnick, who claimed in September that Abraham had decided to play for the west African country.
But Abraham, an England Under-21 international, denied the claim and having been called up for England’s forthcoming friendlies, the striker is not entertaining second thoughts. “I see myself as being a long-term England player,” Abraham, 20, told reporters at England’s St George’s Park training base in Burton-on-Trent, central England.
“That is where my main focus is and I am 100 % focused here to try and get into that team. I was pretty set on England really and playing in the Premier League meant it would be nice to play in the England team as well.” Abraham is on loan at Swansea City from Chelsea and has scored five goals in his first 14 appearances for the Welsh club. Asked about Nigeria’s interest, he said: “It was flattering, but for me my main focus was here."
