Gareth Southgate's spiky response to John Stones injury as seven Man City players doubts vs Arsenal
Gareth Southgate defended his decision to play John Stones for England on Tuesday - saying other key players for Manchester City, Liverpool and Arsenal were used in the same way.
Pep Guardiola told his players to be sensible over their minutes for their countries over the international break given they were all playing friendlies, and Erling Haaland reported that the manager joked to his squad that he would 'come after them' if anyone got injured.
With Ederson, Kevin De Bruyne and Jack Grealish all remaining at City to recover from their own injuries, City saw Kyle Walker withdraw from England duty after limping out of the defeat to Brazil with an apparent hamstring injury. Then, on Tuesday, Stones started against Belgium but limped off in the early stages with an adductor problem.
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After the game, Southgate provided an update on Stones and denied that he had been rushed back or overused this week - using Erling Haaland, Martin Odegaard and Virgil van Dijk to make his point.
“We measure everything,” he said. “The first game wasn’t a game which was a high level in terms of intensity. We’ve done exactly what Holland did with Virgil van Dijk and Nathan Ake and what Norway did with Martin Odegaard and Erling Haaland. It only seems to fall on us when there’s a question on that.
"Of course, we’re disappointed if he’s got a problem. It looks like it’s in the abductor area. He came in on the back of not playing for two weeks, so it’s not about overload. But I hate sending players back to their clubs injured."
After Stones and
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