Kyle Walker suffered an injury during the first half of England’s friendly with Brazil (Picture: Getty)
Manchester City will be sweating on the fitness of Kyle Walker ahead of their Premier League summit meeting with Arsenal after the stand-in England captain suffered an injury against Brazil.
The veteran full-back appeared to strain his left hamstring in the 17th minute after he utilised his trademark pace to prevent Vnicius Jr from opening the scoring.
England’s back four had been caught out by a ball chipped over their backline and when the Real Madrid forward nudged the ball beyond a hesitant Jordan Pickford a goal looked inevitable.
Walker, however, had other ideas and sprinted back in time to comfortably stop the ball from crossing the line but is commitment to the cause came at a cost.
The 33-year-old, who was wearing the armband in the absence of Harry Kane, attempted to play on but eventually succumbed to the injury and was replaced byAston Villa’s Ezri Konsa who made his senior debut.
Gareth Southgate had already been forced to select a makeshift XI following a raft of injuries to a number of his key players.
Kane injured his ankle colliding with a post during Bayern Munich’s win over Darmstadt last weekend.
Harry Maguire wore the England captain’s armband in the absence of Kyle Walker (Picture: Getty)
Ezri Konsa made his senior England debut, replacing the injured Kyle Walker (Picture: Getty)
The 30-year-old trained separately from the first team squad earlier this week and hadn’t recovered sufficiently in time to feature against Brazil.
The England boss rated Kane’s chances of featuring against the Red Devils as ‘extremely doubtful’ and considered whether the increasing demands on players are affecting availability.
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‘Everyone wants simple solutions to complex problems,’ he said. ‘Some players have just been unfortunate. Kane’s injury was when he crashed into the net at the weekend and it’s forced the mechanism with his ankle.’
Saka, meanwhile, has suffered what appears to be a more serious injury given the decision that was taken by the England medical staff on Thursday.
The Arsenal winger, suffering from a muscle injury, returned to the north London club where he will be monitored ahead of next Sunday’s Premier League summit meeting with Manchester City.
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