It is very interesting when you look at all these top England stars who are missing the Qatar World Cup through injury.
Quite incredible.
As the Qatar World Cup got ever closer, the media debate ramped up ever further.
The timing of this World Cup in the middle of a Premier League season, making it absolutely inevitable that a seriously long list of key England stars would be absent.
Not like what happens when the World Cup is held at the end of a Premier League season…
So anyway, here are all the big England stars who are having to miss out on this November / December 2022 tournament due to injury.
Reece James…and….errrr…all those other ones.
Yes, when it comes to big England stars missing through injury, you have Reece James.
I’m sorry, but this doesn’t exactly match the absolute hysteria that saw the media frothing at the mouth, whenever any English player picked up any knock these past three and a half months.
Was always going to happen we were told, massive numbers of injuries inevitable due to holding a World Cup at this point.
Hmmm, I can think of a lot of issues surrounding this World Cup and the timing of it is one of them, though not when it comes to injuries though.
You see, whenever journalists would play the hysteria card, predictably it was done in the laziest way possible. As in, no need to do any research…after all, why would you need to, as everybody knows, there has never been any injured England stars missing out on a World Cup due to injury, after having had to play an entire full on league season…
Reece James is a decent player, however, with Kieran Trippier available I don’t think James’ absence weakens England whatsoever.
Ben Chilwell is missing as well through injury, not a bad player, but to call him one of the absent ‘England stars’ would be pushing it. He turns 26 next month and has only started nine competitive England matches (qualifiers for Euros and World Cups, plus playing at the actual finals of the two), so you can hardly say he is a massive miss.
Yes, I know both Walker and Phillips are coming back from injury and are in the England squad…but I’m sure there have been countless cases in the past in summer tournaments, where players are included, despite carrying knocks.
The 26 England stars who were named by Gareth Squad in his squad:
1: JORDAN PICKFORD
2: KYLE WALKER
3: LUKE SHAW
4: DECLAN RICE
5: JOHN STONES
6: HARRY MAGUIRE
7: JACK GREALISH
8: JORDAN HENDERSON
9: HARRY KANE
10: RAHEEM STERLING
11: MARCUS RASHORD
12: KIERAN TRIPPIER
13: NICK POPE
14: KALVIN PHILLIPS
15: ERIC DIER
16: CONOR COADY
17: BUKAYO SAKA
18: TRENT ALEXANDER-ARNOLD
19: MASON MOUNT
20: PHIL FODEN
21: BEN WHITE
22: JUDE BELLINGHAM
23: AARON RAMSDALE
24: CALLUM WILSON
25: JAMES MADDISON
26: CONOR GALLAGHER
The TV schedule for all 48 Qatar World Cup group games, with NUFC player (potential!) involvement highlighted:
20 November, 16:00: Qatar v Ecuador – BBC
21 November, 10:00: Senegal v Netherlands – ITV
Monday 21 November, 13:00: England v Iran – BBC (Nick Pope, Kieran Trippier, Callum Wilson)
21 November, 19:00: USA v Wales – ITV
22 November, 10:00: Argentina v Saudi Arabia – ITV
22 November, 13:00: Denmark v Tunisia – ITV
22 November, 16:00: Mexico v Poland – BBC
Tuesday 22 November, 19:00: France v Australia – BBC (Garang Kuol)
23 November, 10:00: Morocco v Croatia – ITV
23 November, 13:00: Germany v Japan – ITV
23 November, 16:00: Spain v Costa Rica – ITV
23 November, 19:00: Belgium v Canada – BBC
Thursday 24 November, 10:00: Switzerland v Cameroon – ITV (Fabian Schar)
24 November, 13:00: Uruguay v South Korea – BBC
24 November, 16:00: Portugal v Ghana – ITV
Thursday 24 November, 19:00: Brazil v Serbia – BBC (Bruno Guimaraes)
25 November, 10:00: Wales v Iran – BBC
25 November, 13:00: Qatar v Senegal – BBC
25 November, 16:00: Netherlands v Ecuador – ITV
Friday 25 November, 19:00: England v USA – ITV (Nick Pope, Kieran Trippier, Callum Wilson)
Saturday 26 November, 10:00: Tunisia v Australia – BBC (Garang Kuol)
26 November, 13:00: Poland v Saudi Arabia – ITV
26 November, 16:00: France v Denmark – ITV
26 November, 19:00: Argentina v Mexico – ITV
27 November, 10:00: Japan v Costa Rica – ITV
27 November, 13:00: Belgium v Morocco – BBC
27 November, 16:00: Croatia v Canada – BBC
27 November, 19:00: Spain v Germany – BBC
28 November, 10:00: Cameroon v Serbia – ITV
28 November, 13:00: South Korea v Ghana – BBC
Monday 28 November, 16:00: Brazil v Switzerland – ITV (Bruno Guimaraes, Fabian Schar)
28 November, 19:00: Portugal v Uruguay – ITV
29 November, 15:00: Ecuador v Senegal – ITV
29 November, 15:00: Netherlands v Qatar – ITV
29 November, 19:00: Iran v USA – BBC
Tuesday 29 November, 19:00: England v Wales – BBC (Nick Pope, Kieran Trippier, Callum Wilson)
30 November, 15:00: Tunisia v France – BBC
Wednesday 30 November, 15:00: Australia v Denmark – BBC (Garang Kuol)
30 November, 19:00: Poland v Argentina – BBC
30 November, 19:00: Saudi Arabia v Mexico – BBC
1 December, 16:00: Canada v Morocco – BBC
1 December, 16:00: Croatia v Belgium – BBC
1 December, 19:00: Japan v Spain – ITV
1 December, 19:00: Costa Rica v Germany – ITV
2 December, 16:00: Ghana v Uruguay – BBC
2 December, 16:00: South Korea v Portugal – BBC
Friday 2 December, 19:00: Serbia v Switzerland – ITV (Fabian Schar)
Friday 2 December, 19:00: Cameroon v Brazil – ITV (Bruno Guimaraes)