Joe Gomez: England return has ended period which took a ‘psychological toll’

Joe Gomez says his return to St George’s Park with England for the first time in three and a half years has closed the chapter on a difficult period of his career which had a “psychological toll”.

The Liverpool defender is back on the international scene following a fine season, making the cut in Gareth Southgate’s final squad selection before he names his 23-man pool for Euro 2024.

It was during a session while away with England in November 2020 when Gomez injured the tendons in his knee, leading to surgery and an eight-month spell on the sidelines that became a near-four year absence from Southgate’s squad.

Now Gomez is back in the reckoning and feels he has already put the pain behind him – even before the upcoming Wembley friendly double-header against Brazil and Belgium.

“I’d be lying if I said it didn’t have a psychological toll,” he replied when asked how it felt to return to the same training pitch where he suffered his injury.

“I left in an ambulance quite abruptly from the training pitch. It meant a lot to me. Just even yesterday, doing the warm up. It was nice to feel like I could close that chapter, not to be over dramatic.

“Everyone gets injured, it is part of the game but it being so sudden, the way it happened, just leaving and never really getting the chance to come back was tough to deal with.

“It has meant a lot just to be in the mix, to be with the boys and close that chapter for me personally.”

Gomez has always been a favourite of Southgate, playing regularly under the England boss when he was in charge of the under-21s set-up.

Southgate, too, handed the now 26-year-old his senior debut in 2017 and Gomez is now delighted to be back amongst it once again.

“At that time, I was probably 22 or so and