England boss Gareth Southgate has confirmed he may need to use several Under-21 players for his squad for Tuesday night’s friendly with Switzerland.
The Three Lions lost their opening game of the UEFA Nations League at Wembley as they were beaten 2-1 by Spain.
Manchester United striker Marcus Rashford gave England the lead in the 11th minute but Southgate’s men were immediately pegged back by Spain.
Midfielder Saul Niguez responded with a low finish, before Rodrigo Moreno capitalised on poor marking to score what turned out to be the winner from close range after 32 minutes.
Substitute Danny Welbeck did bundle home a late equaliser that was disallowed but he may get more of a run-out against the Swiss as the Southgate tries to deal with a number of injuries in the last few days.
Left-back Luke Shaw was stretchered off after colliding with Dani Carvajal while Raheem Sterling and Adam Lallana have already withdrawn from the squad.
Striker Rashford is also a doubt for the game against the Swiss and Southgate admits using youth might be his only option.
He said: “We need to assess it over the weekend but it’s likely we’ll call some players in.
“We’ll look to do that from the U21s but we’re unsure on which positions. Rashford was feeling something, we’ll have to assess him in the morning.”
England will head north to play Switzerland at Leicester’s King Power Stadium and they are 1.70 to win, with the draw 3.50.
Switzerland head into the game on the back of a superb 6-0 win over Iceland but they are still 5.00 to beat England.
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