England star withdraws from squad after Thomas Tuchel’s ‘worrying’ damage replace
Newcastle winger Anthony Gordon has returned to his club after suffering a hip injury during England’s 2-0 win over Albania, with Thomas Tuchel admitting the issue is ‘worrying’
Newcastle’s Anthony Gordon has been forced to withdraw from the England squad after sustaining an injury during the victory over Albania.
Gordon, who was brought on as a substitute in the second half of the 2-0 win on Friday night, suffered a hip problem and the Three Lions have since confirmed that he has returned to Newcastle for further assessment and will not feature in Monday night’s match against Latvia at Wembley.
“He looks injured,” Thomas Tuchel commented on Friday night when questioned about Gordon’s condition. “At first, I thought it was his stomach but it’s his hip and it doesn’t look good. It’s a bit worrying.”
Gordon was brought on as a 74th-minute replacement for Marcus Rashford against Albania. He received treatment on the pitch and later headed straight down the tunnel after the final whistle.
The 24-year-old, who has scored nine goals and provided six assists in 34 appearances for Newcastle this season, will be a significant loss for Tuchel ahead of his second game as England boss.
Despite securing a routine win on Friday thanks to goals from Myles Lewis-Skelly and Harry Kane, Tuchel didn’t hold back in criticising his wingers for their lack of impact. Rashford and Phil Foden were selected to start on the wings, but could potentially lose their spots for the Latvia match, which could have presented an opportunity for Gordon and fellow substitute Jarrod Bowen.
Former Chelsea boss Tuchel admitted his team needs to step up their game following their recent performance. Speaking to ITV, he lamented, “We can do better, we have to do better. In all of the matches we saw in the Euros they managed to not concede chances, not concede goals. Second half, I felt that we were too slow and in general not enough runs off the ball to get more often behind the line.”
He added: “We hope for more impact in these positions and then we tried with Anthony and Jarrod. I hope for a little bit more impact with more dribbling and less passing. More aggressive runs towards the box. In general that was missing. I think all of the chances come from the little runs behind the line, Jude had some good runs in the first-half of the first half.
“Myles scored from it and Kyle Walker had one where we had the big chance to score the second one. There was a bit missing they were not as decisive as they can be.”
