Marcus Rashford Misses Second Successive England Training Session Through Injury
Marcus Rashford was a notable absentee from England's World Cup training session for the second successive day after sustaining a 'minor knee injury', just four days out from the Three Lions' opening game against Tunisia.
The Manchester United forward suffered a knock in the final training session at the Three Lions' training base earlier this week, where he went on to miss the open session with the remainder of his teammates in Russia on Wednesday as he completed his own fitness work in the gym following medical assessments.
Marcus Rashford has missed training in Russia again. His injury is described as a minor knee injury. The team are still 4 days away from their opening game of the #worldcup against Tunisia
— HAYLEY MCQUEEN (@HayleyMcQueen) June 14, 2018
According to Hayley McQueen on Twitter, Rashford's knock has been described as a 'minor knee injury' which leaves the forward with a race against time to prove his fitness ahead of England's opening clash.
Thus, the injury will come as a major blow to the 20-year-old's hopes of making a starting appearance in England's opening game on Monday evening, with Raheem Sterling expected to start instead of him.
The United forward had delivered a man of the match display in England's final pre-World Cup friendly against Costa Rica last week after scoring a sensational goal to open the scoring for the home side at Elland Road, leaving many to tip the youngster for a starting berth against Tunisia.
The knock is not expected to rule Rashford out of the tournament and the forward corroborated such reports when he issued a statement of his own on Wednesday evening on Twitter, which said: "Thanks for the messages I've been getting. Picked up a slight niggle but nothing to worry about #ThreeLions."
The Times reports that should Rashford aggravate the issue, Southgate does have the opportunity to call up one his standby players up to 24-hours before their opening game - with Adam Lallana, who is now on holiday, the man expected to be benefit should such a decision need to be made.
Rashford - who has earned 19 caps for England - remains the only injury concern for Gareth Southgate despite Eric Dier being spotted with heavy strapping on his leg ahead of opening their Group G campaign in Volgograd on Monday - where Jordan Henderson is the man expected to start in the deep lying midfield position.