James Maddison withdraws from England squad due to injury
- Tottenham confirm withdrawal of James Maddison from England squad
- Midfielder sustained ankle injury in Monday's loss to Chelsea
- Further England absentees to be confirmed in coming days following squad announcement
By Sean Walsh
Tottenham Hotspur have confirmed that James Maddison has had to withdraw from England's squad for the November internationals.
Maddison sustained an innocuous non-contact ankle injury during Spurs' 4-1 defeat to rivals Chelsea on Monday night.
Though Spurs have not revealed the extent of Maddison's problem just yet, they have announced he will not join up with the Three Lions for this month's international fixtures.
"We can confirm that James Maddison has been withdrawn from the England squad due to an ankle injury," Tottenham said in a statement.
"The midfielder will not feature in the Three Lions' UEFA EURO 2024 qualifiers against Malta and North Macedonia, and will remain at Hotspur Way for rehabilitation with the Club's medical staff."
Tottenham head coach Ange Postecoglou is likely to give an update on Maddison's fitness at a press conference on Friday ahead of this weekend's trip to Wolves.
England boss Gareth Southgate admitted on Thursday he had named a number of injury doubts in his squad as he could not yet be certain who would be unavailable for both matches. Maddison's ankle issue seemed to have been played down when Southgate revealed Newcastle United striker Callum Wilson was most at risk of pulling out.
"Some of those, we could lose one today after a scan, we could lose one tomorrow. We don't really know. You'd be amazed at how complicated it is picking a squad because all clubs are of course sensitive to information and you're trying to piece everything together," Southgate said.
"So I couldn't be certain that everybody that is in that squad will be there on Sunday night [when the squad reports for duty], varying levels of doubt. With that, Callum is probably the biggest level of doubt, Callum Wilson, but equally I'm pretty confident that the others can get through and they're all keen to be in the squad so that's a really good sign."
Arsenal winger Bukayo Saka is also a doubt to reconvene with the England camp after sustaining a heavy blow and being substituted late on in the Gunners' 2-0 win against Sevilla in the Champions League.
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