England have suffered another setback surrounding the fitness of Luke Shaw ahead of their final group stage game against Slovenia next week.

Shaw is yet to feature for England at the tournament and wasn’t even named amongst the substitutes for Thursday’s disappointing draw with Denmark.

The United defender’s absence was expected for Denmark, with Gareth Southgate telling the media ahead of the game with Shaw still yet to make an appearance since February.

Advert

“Luke won’t be involved tomorrow, no,” said Southgate on Wednesday evening. “He’s actually on track to where we thought he’d be originally.

“We were hoping, a couple of days ago, we might accelerate that a little bit, but he needs a bit more volume work.”

Shaw was on the bench for the opener against Serbia but was not sent out to warm up when deputising left back Kieran Trippier went down injured, indicating he is far from ready to play.

Advert

Following the result in Frankfurt, the England squad returned to basecamp, but once again Luke Shaw was not seen training with the main group, despite previously being involved.

Southgate has refused to give a timeframe regarding Shaw’s return casting doubt on his participation in the tournament at all, and again highlighting the bizarre decision to not take a single fit left-back to Germany.

It is understood that Shaw is currently working to his own training plan indoors away from the rest of the squad.

Luke Shaw- Getty

The news all but confirms England will be working with Trippier until the later stages of the tournament if they get there, which honestly poses more questions than it answers.

Advert

Southgate’s decision to leave out the likes of Ben Chilwell and Tyrick Mitchell continues to baffle fans and journalists alike.

Even someone like Jarrad Branthwaite, who has played there this season and more importantly is actually left footed.