England were forced to contend with an unusual injury blow on Wednesday, as manager Gareth Southgate dislocated his right shoulder while running near the team’s World Cup base in Repino.
Southgate was hurt during a scheduled day off from training, but laughed off the incident that led to him addressing his players with his arm in a sling at a team meeting later in the day.
The England boss leapt into the air enthusiastically following Harry Kane’s injury-time winner against Tunisia on Monday and joked: “I might not be celebrating any goals as athletically in future! The doc has made it clear that punching the air is not an option.”
In quotes reported by the Football Association’s official website, Southgate added: “It is better this is me than one of the players.
“They were a bit surprised in the team meeting and were asking ‘what have you been doing!?’ – as always, they were probably quite amused.
“It is good that we have had a quiet day today so I had prepared the meeting before and we are on to preparations for Panama.
“I am just a bit gutted because I was on for my record 10k time!”
“It is better me than one of the players!”#threelions https://t.co/HajfTAuKKb
— England (@England) June 20, 2018
Elaborating on the assistance he received, Southgate, whose team face Panama in their second Group G game on Sunday, said: “We have got such a great support team and they were there very quickly. They were supposed to be relaxing because we let the players have a bit of time off and I am causing them work.
“We are lucky we have a top-class medical team around us, so it was fine. I had brilliant help from them, and I am just sorry that I managed to ruin their day off.”
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