Last Thursday Gareth Southgate named his England squad for the Qatar 2022 World Cup, with 26 players selected in the hope that the Three Lions can achieve their first tournament win since 1966.
Southgate will be sweating on the progress of three players in particular, with their plane to Qatar having departed from Birmingham Airport on Tuesday. James Maddison, Kyle Walker and Kalvin Phillips are all injury concerns ahead of the tournament having been selected in the squad last week.
England will have five days of training sessions to negotiate at their Al Wakrah base before their first game against Iran and there could be some injury scares before them in what could be a nightmare situation for Southgate and the players.
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However, there would still be time to make a late call-up to the squad should the worst happen and England lose one of their players to injury on the eve of the tournament. Here are the World Cup squad rules:
Can England make changes to World Cup squad?
Players who suffer an injury which rules them out of the tournament will be able to be replaced up to 24 hours before their team's opening match, which is against Iran on Monday. This rule also applies to players who test positive for COVID-19 and means that Southgate has until 1pm on Sunday, November 20 to make any last minute changes.
All such injuries must be assessed by the FIFA General Medical Officer and a replacement can be called up from the 55-man provisional squads which were submitted to FIFA earlier this year.
Any player who picks up an injury during the tournament cannot be replaced in the squad.
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