Reece James ruled out of England's Euro 2024 qualifier against Ukraine on Sunday with an injury
/dnl.eurosport.com/sd/img/placeholder/eurosport_logo_1x1.png){kind=logo}
Updated 25/03/2023 at 14:11 GMT
The Chelsea defender Reece James has returned to his club for the “assessment of an ongoing issue.” It is understood that manager Gareth Southgate will not be calling up a replacement for the full-back. Southgate and goalkeeper Jordan Pickford will speak to the media on Saturday afternoon ahead of Sunday's match at Wembley, which kicks-off at 5pm UK time.
Record-breaking Kane talks of 'amazing' Italy victory
Reece James has pulled out of the England squad and will miss the Euro 2024 qualifier against Ukraine in Sunday.
The Football Association said James had returned to Chelsea for the “assessment of an ongoing issue,” and no replacement would be drafted into the squad.
James has endured a challenging past few months due to injuries after a knee problem ruled him out of last year’s World Cup.
He then suffered another knee injury in December, which resulted in another month on the sidelines for the Blues defender.
The Three Lions head into Sunday’s match at Wembley hoping to making it six points from two games following an impressive 2-1 win against Italy on Thursday.
Declan Rice and Harry Kane were on target in Naples, the latter breaking Wayne Rooney’s goalscoring record with his 54th goal for England. James came on for the final five minutes of that win as an 85th-minute replacement for Bukayo Saka.
Sunday’s match will be the first meeting between England and Ukraine since Gareth Southgate’s side secured a 4-0 win in a Euro 2020 quarter-final.
Expectations are certainly sky high within the squad, as Harry Maguire believes it will be a failure if England fail to win Euro 2024 despite only just beginning their qualification campaign for the tournament.
"I believe we have the players to win it," said Maguire to reporters after the victory. "I'm with a mindset of, 'If we don't win the tournament, it's been a failure'. I've been at three major tournaments now and I've come so close.
"Obviously, we've got to qualify first from a tough group, we've come to Italy and got an amazing result. We're in a good place.
"But these big tournaments are decided on the finest margins. I think we played really well in the World Cup and ultimately we got knocked out by a good French team.
"So it's something that we're working on. We have so much talent and so many young players coming through.”
Sunday’s match against Ukraine kicks off at 5pm UK time, while the other match in Group C sees Malta host Italy at 7.45pm.
Scan me
Related Topics
Share this article
Advertisement
Advertisement