England must cope without Bukayo Saka against Finland this evening as they look to get their Nations League campaign back on track.
Lee Carsley’s odds of succeeding Gareth Southgate on permanent basis drifted following a shock defeat against Greece at Wembley earlier this week.
An experimental line-up, which featured Jude Bellingham in a false nine position, yielded a chaotic and confused display that undid much of the good work that Carsley oversaw in September’s victories over Ireland and Finland.
The interim manager’s cause was hardly aided by the sight of Saka being forced off in the 51st minute.
After undergoing scans, the Football Association confirmed on Saturday that the Arsenal winger would be returning to his club and would not feature in Sunday’s game in Helsinki.
The Gunners, meanwhile, return to action next weekend against Bournemouth before another daunting run of fixtures which includes games against Liverpool, Chelsea and Inter.
Mikel Arteta will hope to have his chief source of goals available as soon as possible, and Carsley hinted Saka’s setback might not be as significant as first feared.
Speaking ahead of today’s game against Finland, he said: ‘Bukayo would have been close but it would have been unfair to take a risk with him.’
Arsenal are also sweating on the fitness of Kai Havertz who pulled out of the Germany squad last week with a minor knee injury.
Jurrien Timber and Thomas Partey both skipped international duty too, while both Ben White and Martin Odegaard are also working their way back to full fitness following injuries.
Speaking ahead of the 3-1 win over Southampton prior to the international break, Odegaard insisted he was making good progress in his recovery from the ankle ligament damage he sustained playing for Norway in September.
‘In the last week or so I’ve made really good progress,’ he confirmd. ‘I’m getting better & better by the day and feel it’s going well.
‘When you feel like things are moving forward, it gives you motivation to do more and more and work harder.
‘Today is our last game before another international break, so that gives me some more time to work on the rehab, too. Hopefully it won’t be much longer — I think we will know more as soon as I get out on the training pitches and we see how my ankle responds to that.
‘At the moment it’s progressing well and it looks better than we were thinking, but we’ve still got to take eve.’
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