James Maddison trained with England’s squad - to give Gareth Southgate hope that the Leicester midfielder’s World Cup is set for take-off.
Maddison is yet to feature for the Three Lions in Qatar after aggravating a knee injury in the Foxes’ clash with West Ham before the tournament. He has been training on his own and undergoing treatment - but is now in the frame to play a part in the final group game against Wales on Tuesday.
The 26-year-old forced his way into England’s 26-man squad with some impressive performances for his club. But he has been a spectator as England followed a thumping 6-2 victory over Iran with a disappointing goalless draw against the United States.
England need a point against the Welsh to guarantee their qualification to the last 16. Victory would take them through as group winners. Maddison will not start the Battle of Britain but could get his first minutes at the World Cup as a substitute.
He gives the Three Lions another effective attacking option. Southgate said: “James hasn’t really trained with the group, so I don’t think he’s likely to be in a position to start. But he is more positive and so hopefully he’ll be an option for us.
“We’ve got to assess how everybody is. Then we have got to consider whether refreshing certain positions is going to be as important because we have got a good squad and these games are taking a lot out of people.”
The 11 players who started against the Americans were all allowed to rest to recover from a gruelling contest when England trained at the base at the Saoud bin Abdulrahman Stadium.
Substitute Jordan Henderson also didn’t train although Jack Grealish and Marcus Rashford did have a work-out despite getting game-time against the USA. Henderson was performing his own tailored fitness regime in the gym.
