England have been given a timely boost for their upcoming Euro 2020 campaign as Harry Maguire has been passed fit to make the final 26-man squad after injury doubts.
There was confusion over whether the United skipper would be available for the tournament as Manchester United held their cards close to their chest ahead of the Europa League final last week, and Gareth Southgate has confirmed that Maguire’s physical state is not ideal.
The United skipper hobbled off his side’s 3-1 win over Aston Villa just over three weeks ago and it has since been confirmed that he has been sidelined with ankle ligament damage.
“The most complex part this time has been injuries & whether we should take the chance on people,” he said as quoted by Sky Sports. “Clearly with Jordan (Henderson) & Harry Maguire we’ve got a couple of players who are not where we’d be ideally in terms of their physical prep.
“But we think that the experience they have, the fact that we think we can get them to a point where they can have an involvement in the tournament, it’s worth taking them, especially as we’ve got an extended squad of 26.”
Maguire now faces a race to pass fit for the England’s opening game of the Euro’s when they take on Croatia on 13 June.
Southgate’s side play two warm-up games against Austria and Romania before then but it is not expected that Maguire will take part in either.
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