Emile Smith Rowe is unlikely to feature for England in their friendly against Switzerland at Wembley tomorrow due to a minor injury, Gareth Southgate has said. The Arsenal attacker remains with the squad and could feature against Ivory Coast on Tuesday evening.
Goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale and forward Bukayo Saka have already been ruled out due to a hip injury and Covid-19. That means only one of the four Arsenal players initially named in the squad, centre back Ben White, is in line to play against a Swiss side captained by clubmate Granit Xhaka.
"Emile didn't train today so unlikely he'll be involved tomorrow," Southgate said. "Nothing too serious but we'll check to see if he'll be involved tomorrow. Raheem [Sterling] is absolutely fine but it was a shame to lose Bukayo. We're back in that place with Covid where there's a spike. It's a shame."
READ MORE: Xhaka relieved that Arsenal stars will be absent vs Swiss
The Crystal Palace defenders Marc Guehi and Tyrick Mitchell will make their senior debuts in this camp but Southgate is wary of finding the right mix of youth and experience. Conor Gallagher, the Palace midfielder on loan from Chelsea will also feature.
"We'll have debuts this week, whether tomorrow or Tuesday," Southgate added. "We want to put them in with experienced players so there's balance.
"They've found it very easy to settle in. This group, the senior players, create an environment to put young players at ease. That's important. They can be close to their best as possible if that's the case. Fraser Forster, who hasn't been here for a while, recognised that in this group. They can take on the information they need to on the training pitch.
"We've seen in Marc, Conor, Kyle Walker Peters, Tyrick what we've seen from their clubs. The key now is to take what we see on the training pitch into matches. That's the most interesting aspect for us."
