Top News

Marc Guehi is a major fitness doubt for England’s trip to Serbia as Thomas Tuchel prepares for a testing clash away at Serbia on Tuesday night.

Tuchel revealed the Crystal Palace captain complained about a groin injury at half time in England’s 2-0 win over Andorra on Saturday.

Guehi actually played on until 76 minutes when he was replaced by Ezri Konsa but England are certain to check on the key defender ahead of Tuesday.

It also meant that Tuchel was reluctant to make too many substitutes against Andorra and that was the reason why Harry Kane stayed on for 90 minutes when the original plan was to bring on Aston Villa Ollie Watkins at his home ground.

When asked why he kept Kane on for 90 minutes, England boss Tuchel said: "Yes there was a reason for that. I wanted to put Ollie on normally, as it's Villa Park, for sure his family was there, I was a bit unhappy with that.

READ MORE: Serbia FA send warning to own fans ahead of crunch World Cup qualifier vs England

READ MORE: Arsenal fans left fuming over Max Dowman incident during England U19 game

“But Marc Guehi said at half-time he felt his groin, so we lost already John Stones, and I was not ready to take the risk. And of course Ezri is also a Villa player, so we had that. It would have been a possibility to let Ollie play.”

Tuchel admitted they could face their toughest match in this qualifying campaign because the atmosphere will be red hot in Belgrade. He said the players will have to be aware of the dangers of getting red and yellow cards in the intimidating noise against their closest opponents in Group K.

Serbia have already had a partial stadium closure imposed - 15 percent of the 51,000 capacity will be closed - as punishment for racist behaviour in their World Cup qualifier with Andorra in June.

Tuchel raised the pitch as another potential issue but the Rajko Mitic Stadium is also notorious for being loud and noisy. He said: “We will get the headlines ready. It will be an emotional crowd I guess. We will have to adapt to the adversity and overcome adversity and let’s see what the pitch is like, how the game plays out. You never know, you can have red cards, yellow cards, whatever.

"It will be a good test and we’re looking forward to it. We feel that we are ready to step up to the atmosphere, the physicality and it will be an emotional, very important game in the group. We will be prepared for that.

"In any match it can happen. We will prepare for the vest version of our opponent and adapt to what is coming. Maybe we get an early goal or two and it’s a comfortable win. Or maybe we concede from a set piece or deflected shot – anything can happen.

"We need to be ready for everything. We will face the same formation, the defensive block of 5-4-1 with individual quality up front with tall physical strikers."

Join our new WhatsApp community and receive your daily dose of Mirror Football content. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.