Newcastle United duo handed major England boost despite two-month injury lay-off

Gareth Southgate has hinted that both Kieran Trippier and Anthony Gordon could be included in his England squad for this summer’s European Championships in Germany. The Three Lions will face Serbia, Denmark and Slovenia in the group stages with their tournament getting underway against Serbia on Sunday 16 June.

Southgate has a number of big calls to make surrounding who will be on the plane to Germany - including how many, if any, Magpies players he will call up. Anthony Gordon has been one of the Premier League’s star players this term and impressed on his maiden call-up to England’s senior squad back in March. But will that impression be enough to book the former Everton man a spot in Southgate’s squad? 

“He’s been outstanding all year.” Southgate admitted. “We were able to see him in the Champions League games, which of course is very similar to our world, it’s knockout games against top-level opponents.

“Then the fact that he’s weighing in with goals is important, but also the work he does off the ball. He works tirelessly for the team, and I think we saw that with our games in March as well. We were very pleased with what he did.”

If Gordon is a newcomer to the England squad, then Trippier is one of the stalwarts and someone that Southgate has relied upon over his time as Three Lions manager. The 33-year-old missed out on international duty back in March because of injury - one that has seen him sidelined since the beginning of March. However, despite these issues, Southgate was keen to stress Trippier’s importance to his team ahead of Euro 2024. Southgate Said: “He is an important part of our squad. He is a very experienced player at international level. You know as well as we do the leadership qualities that he has, the impact that he has on the team and on the squad.

“He fulfils a very similar role for us and, of course, that adaptability that he can play on the right or the left is important to us as well.”

England’s preparations for Euro 2024 will see them play a friendly match against Bosnia and Herzegovina at St James’ Park on Monday 3 June (7:45pm kick-off).