Fast-rising England international, Bukayo Saka might not be available for England later tonight when the Three Lions face Ukraine in the quarter-finals of the ongoing Euro 2020.
The 19-year-old Arsenal’s winger received a knock during training on Friday according to the head coach of England, Gareth Southgate. The coach said Bukayo Saka is the only injury worry the team has ahead of their encounter with Ukraine which is scheduled to kick off at 20:00 in Rome, Italy.
The head coach said: “We’ve just got to check on Bukayo, who had a slight knock today (Friday). Other than that everybody is available.”
Bukayo Saka missed the England opener against Croatia on June 13, 2021, and had his chance to play his first game in the tournament on June 18 when he came in for Phil Foden.
He performed so well that coach Gareth Southgate had no choice but to start him in England’s 1-0 win over the Czech Republic.
Bukayo Saka became so relevant in the team that the Arsenal star made it impossible for Phil Foden of Manchester City to return to the team.
Special to be apart of this team 🏴❤️Let’s keep making history ! 🦁🦁🦁 pic.twitter.com/t5PvCx38oF
— Bukayo Saka (@BukayoSaka87) June 29, 2021
Hence, if he is not fit enough for tonight’s encounter, Phil Foden might return to the team or Jandon Sancho might be picked ahead of the fast-rising Manchester City star.
One of the conditions that might warrant Southgate to replace Saka with Sancho instead of Foden is that Foden is already on one yellow card. If he plays tonight and he is booked again, he would miss the next match.
Foden is not the only England player facing this issue, England’s Harry Maguire, Kalvin Phillips, and Declan Rice are also on yellow cards which means that any mistake in the quarter-finals game involving any of those players could make them miss the next game.
But coach Southgate said he might not base his team selection on those who are on yellow cards and he would not plan for the next round when England are yet to scale through Ukraine.
“No. I don’t really understand that rationale,” he replied when asked if the four bookings would affect his team selection.
“I understand that strategically you might like to do that but I can’t think of a country in the world that would do that for a quarter-final. And especially not a country that has only been to three semi-finals in its history.
“I think we’ve got to focus on tomorrow. I think it would be a big error for us to be thinking about anything else and I think it would be an insult to Ukraine as well.”
