ENGLAND star John Stones is in contention to start against Serbia.
The Three Lions kick-off their Euro 2024 campaign on Sunday night.
Stones, 30, missed a training session earlier this week due to illness.
To prevent the bug spreading through England’s camp in Blankenhain, the 72-cap Manchester City star was kept in quarantine away from his team-mates.
He started mixing with the rest of the squad and returned to full training yesterday.
And Jordan Pickford has now revealed that the centre-back is “fit and ready to go”.
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Asked about Stones’ importance, he said: “I remember playing with him at Under-19s level and he made the step up early.
“I’ve known him for a long time and he is a top player – what he’s won for his club.
“Yeah, he is fit and ready to go.
“He is one of the best centre-backs in the world and for England he has been quality with the amount of caps he has won.”
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Stones’ return is a huge boost for Gareth Southgate, who has a defensive selection dilemma to solve.
England are without Stones’ usual centre-back partner Harry Maguire as he did not make the squad due to injury.
Marc Guehi is expected to start in the Manchester United skipper’s place.
And left-back Luke Shaw is sidelined with injury – but he is set to return for the Three Lions’ second match versus Denmark.
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Harry Maguire
“The decision on Harry [Maguire] is totally about his physical condition and his recovery from the injury. There is no other reason as he is one of our strongest centre-backs.
“Harry has made some progress, but it’s been complicated and we wouldn’t have had him in the group stages. There were too many hurdles to get through without being clear where we might get to.
“Knowing we haven’t got a clean bill of health across the rest of the backline, we need players who are fit and ready to go from the start.
“It was a really difficult call, you know how I feel about Harry, what he’s done for England and for me as a manager. “
Jack Grealish
“I have just delivered a really difficult conversation to a lad who is devastated.
“I think the world of him as a kid.“It certainly doesn’t get any easier.
“You put yourself in the shoes of a player, a parent. You understand that for these players this is a devastating moment.
“We knew we had a couple of really difficult days coming up.”
James Maddison
“Madders [Maddison] and Jack [Grealish] would have provided us with something different as well and they’ve been tough calls.
“They’re calls we’ve gone over and over and over as a group of staff to try to be fair and to try to use the right rationale.
“We back our decisions but we recognise we could have gone a different route. The boys are big characters, fabulous team-mates and great boys to work with.
“It’s sad to have to deliver that news to them.”
Jarrad Branthwaite
“It’s a bit early for Jarrad [Branthwaite]. He has had a fabulous season, it was good to get him on the pitch the other night.
“But of course, in an ideal world, you’d like that balance of left-footers. For him to be in ahead of the others, I don’t think it would have been the right call at this stage.”
Jarell Quansah
“Jarell Quansah has stayed with us. He’s not had the experience of an England international at Wembley. It’ll be great for him to be us for the game.
“Hopefully we’re not needing to call anyone else in.”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
