England manager Gareth Southgate has been handed another chance to shuffle his pack.
Against Iceland on Wednesday night, the Three Lions only have pride to play for, live on talkSPORT, as they failed to qualify for the UEFA Nations League finals in October.
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A 2-0 defeat to Belgium last time out was, a touch harsh given some of the good play from Southgate’s men.
Jack Grealish and captain Harry Kane both put in superb showings but despite that, they just could not get themselves on the scoresheet in Leuven.
With injuries already hampering the England squad for that match on Sunday night and afterwards too, it’s likely rotation will be the order of the day.
Southgate can ill afford to infuriate Premier League managers by overplaying their stars when the amount getting knocks and niggles increases.
“In terms of Iceland, it’s still a game that gives opportunities for people to cement a place in the team or in the squad,” the England boss said.
“Again, we’ll find out a lot now because for sure there’ll be a lot of pressure from some clubs on their own players. That’s what we live with consistently.
“But we’ve got players that want to play for England and we have pride in the way we play and we want to finish the game well.
“Our performance [against Belgium] was excellent and the players pushed until the 93rd minute and I couldn’t have been prouder of them doing that.
“So, we have players that want the opportunity to play. We’ll need to freshen the team a little bit but we’ll have to assess that over the next couple of days.”
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England team news
Injuries have well and truly blighted the Three Lions this international break.
Losing Joe Gomez, James Ward-Prowse, and Trent Alexander-Arnold last week was unfortunate and now Jordan Henderson, Ben Chilwell, and Raheem Sterling are all out, too.
It leaves Southgate with slim pickings but means rotating his squad for the dead rubber seems like the sensible thing to do.
Harry Kane and Mason Mount drop to the bench, along with Kieran Trippier, Jordan Pickford, and Eric Dier.
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This would mean starts for Nick Pope, Michael Keane, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Bukayo Saka, Jadon Sancho, and Dominic Calvert-Lewin.
Jack Grealish could also start again with Southgate looking to make sure he fits into his team.
Predicted England line-up to face Iceland
You can listen to commentary of England v Iceland on Wednesday at 7:45pm live on talkSPORT
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