England manager Gareth Southgate has provided a worrying fitness update on the Tottenham midfielder Dele Alli.
The young playmaker played just 22 minutes against Holland and he was dropped against Italy earlier this week. While it seemed like Lingard and Chamberlain were picked ahead of the Spurs star, Southgate confirmed that Alli was dropped because of fitness reasons.
Apparently, the Tottenham playmaker is carrying an injury and he could not finish his training sessions with England.
Southgate added that despite not being a key part of the friendly games, Alli remains an important member of the England team ahead of the World Cup this summer.
He said: “He’s very important to us. In training, he’s not been able to finish all of the sessions, with the little problem he’s had. We wanted to get Adam [Lallana] in, and give Lewis [Cook] some time as well, and then losing John, I didn’t want to make any more changes. But of course Dele always wants to play, and he’ll be disappointed, of course.”
It will be interesting to see whether the 21-year-old returns to action against Chelsea on Sunday. Tottenham are fighting for a place in the top four and they cannot afford to lose key players to injury right now.
Despite having a mixed season so far, Alli is an important player for Spurs and England and the fans will be hoping for a swift recovery in the coming weeks.
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