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| Venue: Wembley Date: Thursday, 25 March Kick-off: 19:45 GMT |
| Coverage: Live commentary on BBC Radio 5 live; live text commentary on the BBC Sport website & app; |
Manchester United forward Marcus Rashford is a doubt for England’s opening World Cup 2022 qualifier against San Marino on Thursday.
The 23-year-old has not been training with the rest of the squad as he recovers from a foot injury.
Arsenal winger Bukayo Saka will miss the game with a hamstring injury.
England boss Gareth Southgate said: “Marcus has been very keen to be with us. He obviously wasn’t with us so much in the autumn.”
Southgate wants ‘ruthless’ England
The Three Lions face San Marino looking to extend their 100% record against the lowest-ranked side in international football.
England have won all six of their previous meetings, scoring 37 goals and conceding just one.
Their last meeting in 2015 ended in a 6-0 win for England and Southgate hopes to see his side show a similar level of attacking freedom in this game.
“We should enjoy playing with the ball, but need to be ruthless with it,” he added.
“To have the creativity to score goals we have got to be positive and say it is a game which we can enjoy.”
‘Kane won’t play every minute’
Captain Harry Kane will be keen to add to his 32 international goals as World Cup qualifying begins.
However, with further qualifiers coming up against Albania and Poland in the next six days, Southgate is wary of not burning out his star striker.
“It is brilliant we have got a captain who wants to play every minute of every game,” said Southgate.
“But we have to be mindful he had extra time last Thursday [in the Europa League] and then another high-intensity game on Sunday.
“We have that situation with a lot of the players really, so we have to manage the fixtures correctly, and have done that through training this week.”
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