John Stones has left the England camp having suffered an injury before the friendly against Switzerland on Saturday and will return to his parent club, Manchester City, as a preventative measure.
Despite withdrawing from the warm-up before to Manchester City’s 2-1 triumph at Wembley, the center-half returned to training on Monday with his teammates ahead of their second encounter of the March international break against Ivory Coast on Tuesday.
Despite the fact that Stones underwent a scan following training on Monday and was given the green light to participate in Tuesday’s friendly, the 27-year-old says that something does not feel right and that he will miss the match and return to his club.
Gareth Southgate has a plethora of choices at center-back for the visit of the Ivory Coast, with Tyrone Mings and Harry Maguire both seeking to make their Wembley debuts after being named on the bench against Switzerland last week.
John Stones was replaced by Arsenal defender Ben White just before kick-off in that game, and the Three Lions also started Marc Guehi and Conor Coady, who came off the bench.
Stones will also be required for a crucial Premier League and Champions League showdown with Manchester City, as the fixture list for Pep Guardiola’s side continues to pile up in the coming weeks.
City go to Burnley on Saturday before facing Atletico Madrid in the quarter-finals of the Champions League, which will be followed by a mouth-watering match against Premier League rivals Liverpool on April 10, which will be broadcast live on Sky Sports.
However, despite the fact that he has only started nine Premier League games for Pep Guardiola’s team this season, Stones has started each of the last three matches in the top tier for the defending Premier League winners.
England’s confirmed 2022 fixtures
Friendlies
Tuesday: Ivory Coast (h)
Nations League
June 4: Hungary (a)
June 8: Germany (a)
June 11: Italy (h)
June 14: Hungary (h)
September 23: Italy (a)
September 26: Germany (h)
