Sport |
Football Gareth Southgate says
Tottenham and Newcastle 's plans for a post-season friendly in Melbourne is "not great news" for
England 's preparations for Euro 2024. Spurs and the Magpies will play a friendly at the 100,000-capacity Melbourne
Cricket Ground on May 22, three days after the end of the
Premier League season and 24 hours after Southgate names his squad for the finals. Spurs playmaker James Maddison and Newcastle right-back Kieran Trippier are expected to make the cut if fit, while the Toon's Anthony Gordon is part of the current squad and Nick Pope and Callum Wilson could also be included in the summer if there are injuries elsewhere. Southgate expects an increasing number of post-season games in future as leading clubs aim to stay in line with financial rules and says he hopes there will be no injuries Down Under. "I think it's often happened in the past," the England manager said when asked for his views on post-season tours. "It's going to happen more and more. "Why? Financial Fair Play means clubs need to generate their own money, so we're in a bizarre world where there's more money in the game than ever before, and yet everyone is scrambling across federations and clubs to generate more money. "The normal way of doing that is to play more games. So is that great news for us, in terms of preparation? No. "But we're going to have players in the FA Cup [final, on May 25) probably, the
Champions League final [June 1] hopefully and a chance of a few other European finals, so we are used to preparing this way in the end. "We had to go to Qatar [for the winter World Cup] with five days prep, so we adjust to whatever it is and hope there are no injuries from that game." Sell Richarlison, keep Werner ahead of transfer spree: How Spurs must revamp squad Fulham ready bumper Adarabioyo contract to ward off Tottenham and
Liverpool interest Nusa issues injury update after failed Brentford move amid Spurs interest First look at exceptional new
London properties for sale in 2024 Southgate is concerned about the number of injuries in his squad ahead of the friendlies against
Brazil and
Belgium at Wembley, with Harry Kane among the players sidelined against the five-time world champions with an ankle injury picked up playing for Bayern Munich. The manager says he has never had more players out through injury and believes a number of different factors are to blame. "Everybody across the league has a high number of injuries but it is always more complex," he said. "Everyone wants a simple solution to complex problems. Some players have been unfortunate. "Kane’s injury was when he crashed into the net at the weekend and it forced a mechanism with his ankle. He had a winter break and is not playing in our league. "So players have had runs of injuries, some of have played too many games too quickly after injuries so there is a whole range and raft for injuries but clearly the intensity of the games, the additional minutes. "We have a long list of 40-odd players and a third are unavailable for tomorrow’s game which is the highest we have ever had." MORE ABOUT Have your say...