England boss Gareth Southgate is “hopeful” that the injury suffered by Joe Gomez is not serious, but admits that it’s “not a good situation”. The Liverpool defender was inflicted with a reportedly serious knee injury in training earlier today ahead of England’s friendly against the Republic of Ireland and their Nations League matches against Belgium and Iceland.
England Manager Gareth Southgate Gives Update on Joe Gomez Injury
Hopeful Joe Gomez Injury isn’t as Serious as Feared
Speaking in a press conference on Wednesday evening, Southgate insisted that he was hopeful for Gomez’s situation but added that he is highly unlikely to play in any of the Three Lions’ games in this international break – and a further statement from England confirmed that Gomez has now withdrawn from the squad.
Get well soon, @J_Gomez97 👊
— England (@England) November 11, 2020
He told reporters: “I can’t tell you how serious it is because he is yet to have scans. What was upsetting to see, he was in a fair bit of pain. There was nobody around him when the injury happened. I didn’t like that element of it.
“But we’ve just got to wait and see what the scans show. We’re all hopeful for him that it’s not what it might be. But it’s not a good situation. I don’t see him being involved in the games with us, that’s for sure.
“We can’t speculate the exact nature of the injury. It’s not possible until we’ve seen scans. My immediate thoughts are with him. He’s had some difficulties with injuries in the past. We’re hoping and praying it is not going to be a long-term one. We’ll just have to see.”
Southgate Bemoans Season Planning
Injuries have been commonplace so far this season due to the heavily-congested calendar owing to the Coronavirus pandemic.
Gomez joins an already long list even just from his club side, with Liverpool now missing three of their main defenders after injuries to Trent Alexander-Arnold and Virgil van Dijk too.
On the fixture pile-up and its impact on players, Southgate added: “With Joe [Gomez] a good example: we knew the load he has had in the last six weeks or so.
“We gave him and the other players who had been in European matches who played Sunday, an extra day’s recovery. Yet still something like this has happened.”
He continued: “There was an opportunity this year to think differently. The pandemic has thrown up all sorts of difficulties for people. But everybody has tried to cram the programme into a smaller period.
“A lot of these discussions should have happened in the summer. We could have adjusted the calendar in its entirety and all worked together. But people haven’t done that.”
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