Gareth Southgate is yet to decide whether Mason Mount and/or Ben Chilwell will be involved for England against Germany on Tuesday night, but has explained a string of reasons why it will be difficult for the pair.
Mount and Chilwell have been isolating from the rest of the England squad and staff after close contact with Scotland’s Billy Gilmour, who later tested positive for Covid-19.
The Chelsea pair will be free from isolation at midnight on Monday, but with the huge last 16 clash at Euro 2020 taking place at 5pm on Tuesday, it is not long to reintegrate into the side.
Chilwell was not selected in either of the matches he was available for anyway, but Mount started against both Croatia and Scotland so Southgate will certainly be tempted to throw him straight back in.
The England boss says that he will need to get a gauge on the psychological state of the pair after isolation, which he feels could have taken a toll on them.
Keeping them up to speed while away from the group has been difficult, but despite this, Southgate has not ruled either man out from starting on Tuesday.
‘We’ve got to take into account [if they can be considered],’ Southgate said. ‘There’s not only the training part of that but the psychological part of that as well, of course.
‘They’ve had to spend a lot of time in a room on their own so very difficult situation firstly for the two boys.
‘You come to a major tournament, you want to be a part of everything and they’ve had to isolate through this period, which is of course difficult for anybody.
‘And for us we’ve just got to make that decision as we as we progress. They come out of the full quarantine at midnight, so we’ll be able to talk to them a little bit more.
‘I’m having to redo the meetings that I have with the rest of the team over a Zoom call with them, so although I can speak with them once they’ve been on to the training pitch to do their session, it’s just getting across all of that feeling that they have.
‘It’s been quite complicated. In the main they’ve had to work entirely on their own.
‘They’ve been able to work in very small, well-distanced group session but not with the full group and they haven’t been able to take part in any of the full team training sessions. The guidance from Public Health England has been very clear, very specific and we’ve had to follow that.’
There is much discussion over which formation and starting XI Southgate will go for against the Germans, with the possibility that he will switch from the 4-3-3 he has played in the first three games to a 3-5-2 or 3-4-3.
Bukayo Saka and Jack Grealish started in the final group game against Czech Republic for the first time and both impressed, but Mount and Phil Foden who missed that match will both hope to regain their places.
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