Kyle Walker, Harry Maguire, Sam Johnstone ruled out of England game with Belgium, Rico Lewis, James Trafford called up

Manchester City defender Kyle Walker and Manchester United man Harry Maguire have withdrawn from the England squad ahead of the friendly against Belgium on Tuesday.

The defensive duo picked up knocks in the 1-0 defeat to Brazil on Saturday and will return to their clubs, as will back-up goalkeeper Sam Johnstone of Crystal Palace.

Skipper Walker limped off 19 minutes into the game at Wembley, and his replacement Maguire was forced off midway through the second half.

Walker’s Manchester City team-mate Rico Lewis, 19, has been promoted from the U21 squad to Gareth Southgate’s group, while Burnley shot-stopper James Trafford wins his first senior call-up. Lewis made his debut against North Macedonia in November 2023.

Southgate is looking forward to hosting Belgium at Wembley despite seeing his side's 10-match unbeaten run ended by Brazil, with 17-year-old Endrick scoring the decisive goal.

Belgium - who are fourth in the world rankings and led by Domenico Tedesco - played out a goalless draw with Republic of Ireland on Saturday.

“Belgium have played a different 11 probably, or close to, so they’re going to be a bit fresher,” Southgate said.

“But similar to [Brazil] we’re talking about a high-level game, brilliant experience for the players, a chance to see new players again, build towards the summer.

“I’m not disappointed with the level of performance. I know in the end when you lose the game then there will always be a negative reaction to losing.

"But my thought was, with 15 minutes to go given all the changes that we’d made, I thought the crowd was already with the team.

“They could see a lot of young players going in and doing well, a lot of very inexperienced players going in and doing well, so I’m not down on the performance of the team at all.”

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