The Stoke City goalkeeper Jack Butland will not be available for Sam Allardyce’s first England squad after sustaining an ankle problem in training.
Butland was absent during Stoke’s 1-1 draw at Middlesbrough on Saturday with Mark Hughes, the manager, admitting the injury “knocked us sideways” during training the previous day.
Scans have shown that Butland will only be out for weeks rather than months, with scar tissue causing him pain on the same ankle that he fractured during England’s friendly victory over Germany before Euro 2016. However, Hughes insists that he will not be available for England when Allardyce’s team play Slovakia in a World Cup qualifier on 4 September.
“He won’t be involved in that. It’s important that he gets back to playing and training and he’ll need a two-week period after the injury where he needs to get up to speed. He won’t be ready for England,” said Hughes. “We don’t want to put a timescale on it but we’ve had good news. It should settle down quickly and it’s a matter of weeks rather than anything more significant thankfully.
“It was a huge blow to us all and it knocked us sideways yesterday [Friday]. We’re thankful that we’ve got an outstanding goalkeeper in Shay [Given] to come in and hold the fort. There was no challenge, he just felt an uncomfortable feeling in the ankle and as the session progressed he was in more pain.
“In the end he had to stop and sit it out. But it’s better news. When he first did it we thought that he had maybe refractured it and Jack was quite concerned at the time. It’s just an injury that will take a couple of weeks hopefully.”
England’s goalkeeping spot will come under scrutiny when Allardyce links up with his squad for the first time. Joe Hart was dropped by Pep Guardiola for Manchester City’s opening Premier League match of the season and made a number of high-profile errors during England’s ill-fated European Championship campaign, with Fraser Forster and Tom Heaton those also selected in the previous squad by Roy Hodgson.
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