• Defender missed England’s warm-up games and opening two matches in the Euros’ group stage

England defender Harry Maguire will be at the heart of Gareth Southgate’s defence in tomorrow’s Euro 2020 semi-final against Denmark, but he did not know if he would be fit enough to even make the squad after an ankle injury in May.
Maguire suffered ligament damage in Manchester United’s May 9 Premier League match with Aston Villa and missed the rest of the domestic season and his club’s Europa League final loss to Villarreal.
He missed England’s warm-up games and opening two matches in the Euros’ group stage but returned in the final group fixture with Czech Republic and has been alongside John Stones since then.
Asked if he feared he might have to watch the Euros on TV rather than be on the field, Maguire, who scored a header in Saturday’s 4-0 win over Ukraine, said there was uncertainty.
“I think with any injury, you don’t know how you are going to recover, you don’t know the rehab, if you are going to have a setback. Touch wood, I haven’t had any setbacks in rehab and it has all gone smoothly, all gone to plan and a little bit quicker than we all thought,” he told a news conference yesterday. “Obviously to miss the Europa League final was disappointing and then I fully set my sights on making the Euros squad.”
The Yorkshireman said he did not know, when he was named in that squad, when he would be ready to return to action but is pleased with the way he has coped. “It’s not like being thrown into a friendly match, it’s the European Championship, so it’s so demanding and the intensity of each game,” he said.
“So where it has gone and where it has been, I think that is great credit to the medical staff at Manchester United and England for the way they went about everything, the way they pushed me every day and obviously I am really proud of myself in terms of the way that I pushed myself as well.”
Maguire was part of the England team which lost to Croatia in the semi-final of the World Cup in Russia three years ago and says the memory of that loss is in the players’ minds. “Losing the semi-final at the World Cup hurt a lot. So we need to make sure when it comes on Wednesday night we get a positive feeling rather than the one we got against Croatia.”

England ready to end semi-final jinx at Euro 2020, says Southgate
Gareth Southgate says England are ready to end their semi-final hoodoo as they prepare to face Denmark in the last four of Euro 2020, bidding to reach their first final at a major tournament since 1966. England topped their group and beat old foes Germany in the round of 16 before ratcheting up expectations with Saturday’s thumping 4-0 quarter-final win against Ukraine in Rome.
England have fallen at the penultimate hurdle at major tournaments on four occasions since winning the World Cup in 1966, including their defeat by Croatia at the World Cup in Russia three years ago. But Southgate believes his side have learned from that disappointment and are ready to take the next step.
“We’ve knocked off so many hoodoos or perceived barriers already and I feel like this group of players will feel this is just the next challenge,” he said. “I guess the interesting part for us is we won’t feel totally satisfied if it’s just a semi-final for us, whereas maybe three years ago, although there was massive disappointment after the semi-final, there was a feeling we’d come a long way. Now we’ve replicated what we did there, but that won’t be enough to fulfil the group. That’s a positive sign.”
A key difference from 2018 is heightened expectation, with Southgate himself admitting their benchmark in Russia was to end England’s 12-year wait for a knockout victory. The former international defender now has more knockout wins than any previous England manager and will go looking for another in Wednesday’s semi-final bolstered by a boisterous partisan crowd of 60,000-plus at Wembley.
“It’s great to be coming back now,” said Southgate, who expects teenager Bukayo Saka to return to training on Monday after missing the Ukraine match with a slight knock. “To go and have that different environment, preparation, focus was definitely helpful. But now to be coming back to Wembley is a great thing for us.”
Southgate says going through “real-life experiences together” such as the sickening racism experienced in Montenegro and Bulgaria in Euro 2020 qualifiers has helped create a bond among his players.
Semi-final opponents Denmark have also been brought closer together following Christian Eriksen’s cardiac arrest in their group opener.
The Inter Milan player needed resuscitation on the pitch before a successful operation in hospital. “We talk about perspective in sport but we rarely have it,” Southgate said. “This was a moment that brought it home for all of us. “I can also imagine what it has done for the Danish team, their bond. We are talking about the things we have been through but what they went through that day — the way their captain was and the way the group was — and how that would have connected with their supporters. That’s pretty powerful.”