Arsenal of England winger, Bukayo Saka will this weekend miss action with the national team in the country of his birth due to a nagging injury that has kept him out of club duties for several weeks, megasportsarena.com reports.
Consequently, Saka is yet to link up with The Three Lions due to a hamstring complaint he has been nursing at Emirates Stadium, but England’s coach, Gareth Southgate said he hopes to have the lad after Thursday’s World Cup qualifier against San Marino.
The Nigerian-born lad ended up missing the game alongside Marcus Rashford and Kyle Walker, while their English Premier League colleagues got back in blue for The Lions’ first game of 2021.
Rashford has been in the national camp but could not train due to a foot complaint, which led Southgate concluding that the Manchester United strker was “more doubtful” than Saka to be involved in their World Cup qualification triple-header.
England had to cut their 26-man squad to 23 players for Thursday’s opener and experienced right-back Walker has been omitted from the squad published by UEFA, but Southgate is staying upbeat that Saka may play one of the remaining games.
The Former England defender added after Thursday’s game, which his side won 5-0, that he was satisfied with his hungry looking side, as he recalled that many of the players had previously looked stodgy in such fixtures.
Ollie Watkins scored on his international debut and Dominic Calvert-Lewin struck twice as England kicked off their qualification campaign for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar with a comfortable win over FIFA’s lowest-ranked side.
England posted 20 shots on the San Marino goal in the first half with Raheem Sterling and Mason Mount looking particularly sharp before they were withdrawn at the break with games against Albania and Poland in mind.
Southgate said: “The whole team were hungry to play. Sometimes these games have been stodgy for us in the past but this team can play slightly differently, we have some creative players who can open teams up.The whole team were hungry to play.
“Sometimes these games have been stodgy for us in the past but this team can play slightly differently, we have some creative players who can open teams up. A lot of those chances were created by the good pressing and winning the ball high up the pitch.
“Also some of the interchange of position and the vision of players. If we were to be ultra-critical, we probably should have scored more but we also have to say their goalkeeper had an absolutely fantastic game.”
