Jadon Sancho is in line to make his first start for England at the Euros in place of Bukayo Saka, who is currently struggling with an injury after the win over Germany this week.
The Arsenal star has been one of the surprise successes of England’s Euro campaign so far, but Gareth Southgate revealed at that the winger was nursing a knock he picked up in training.
Southgate has plenty of options at his disposal, but is likely to resist the temptation to start Jack Grealish, given the impact he has made as a substitute at the tournament already.
Marucs Rashford is another obvious candidate to replace Saka, but the Manchester United forward has barely been used so far, mainly as a substitute for Harry Kane, while there are doubts over his fitness.
Southgate, instead, is likely to place his faith in Sancho, whose move to United from Borussia Dortmund was confirmed on Thursday.
The 21-year-old attacker had been in superb form for club and country last campaign, but he has been restricted to just a brief cameo appearance against Czech Republic so far.
Southgate, meanwhile, is likely to return to a flat back four, given his team are likely to enjoy more possession than they did against Germany, and that may result in a recall for Mason Mount who missed the last 16 matcg having only just returned from a period of self-isolation.
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There have been calls for Southgate to rest Kalvin Phillips and Declan Rice, both of whom are one yellow card away from suspension, but the manager has been warned such a decision would send out the wrong message.
‘I’d just look at the next game and this idea of resting players for a quarter-final at a big tournament is a dangerous route to go down,’ said Roy Keane.
‘Gareth has to focus on picking the best players to get over the line and he’s done a brilliant job so far.’
