Harry Maguire’s participation in this summer’s European Championship was put in doubt after he suffered damage to his ankle ligaments two months ago. The defender missed Manchester United’s run-in but recovered in time to feature in England’s final group game.
Since then, Gareth Southgate has called upon his trusted lieutenant in every game and the 28-year-old has impressed in his four appearances. Former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher even nominated Maguire to be the recipient of Euro 2020’s ‘player of the tournament’.
Maguire missed six weeks of action following the injury sustained at Aston Villa in May and although it has looked like he was never gone, the former Leicester defender has now confirmed that he still feels pain in his ankle.
“The fear that I had was missing everything”, Maguire told The Times ahead of Sunday’s final against Italy.
“I would jump out of bed and put weight on my ankle — which I shouldn’t have done — to test if this pain was still there. It was the twist that caused it, some sort of ligament damage. The pain is still there.”
Ligament injuries are notoriously known for being hard to recover from and Manchester United will be hoping that a couple of week’s rest will see their captain recover from any pain in time for the start of next season.
Maguire had featured in every Premier League game since his arrival before the injury and is Solskjaer’s leader on the pitch – a prolonged absence for his club could prompt the board to ramp up their chase of a centre-back.
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