England manager Gareth Southgate has hit out at the demands being placed on players after Liverpool central defender Joe Gomez suffered a knee injury in training on Wednesday ahead of Thursday\u2019s friendly against Ireland.<\/p>\n
Gomez has been withdrawn from the England squad and sent back to the Premier League champions.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t tell you how serious it is because he is yet to have scans,\u201d Southgate told reporters at his pre-match news conference.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat was upsetting to see, he was in a fair bit of pain. There was nobody around him when the injury happened. I didn\u2019t like that element of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Gomez\u2019s injury is disappointing for Southgate ahead of the Ireland game and Nations League matches against Belgium and Iceland, it is potentially a massive blow for Liverpool who were already without key central defender Virgil van Dijk because of a season-ending knee injury.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re all hopeful for him that it\u2019s not what it might be. But it\u2019s not a good situation,\u201d Southgate said. \u201cWe can\u2019t speculate but my immediate thoughts are with him.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re hoping and praying it is not going to be a long-term one.\u201d<\/p>\n
Southgate took the opportunity to criticize the packed schedule that has put huge demands on the players, due in no small part to the COVID-19 pandemic that meant the domestic seasons started later than normal.<\/p>\n
The 23-year-old Gomez has played 15 games for club and country in little over two months with the Premier League, Champions League and internationals coming thick and fast.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are lots of discussions about extra subs. But the bigger picture here is, everybody in the game needs to work together,\u201d Southgate said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith a winter World Cup (in 2022) there was an opportunity this year to think differently. The pandemic has thrown up all sorts of difficulties for people. But everybody has tried to cram the programme into a smaller period.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are going to see injuries. It\u2019s a desperately sad situation. When you see the impact on an individual, it hits home even more. These discussions should have happened in the summer. We could have adjusted the calendar in its entirety and all worked together. But people haven\u2019t done that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"