John Stones is facing the possibility of missing the early stages of Euro 2024 after missing training with England due to illness.

According to Sky Sports, Stones missed the team"s training session on Wednesday due to illness and has been quarantined in his hotel room because he is worried he could infect his teammates. While he is unlikely to miss the entire tournament, he could miss the first game or two. England play Serbia on Sunday, Denmark on Monday, and Slovenia on Tuesday.

 

Stones" absence would be the biggest blow of all for England. He is the only remaining veteran in the central defense and a key resource for the defense as a leader.

 

Ahead of the tournament, Harry Maguire, one of Gareth Southgate"s mainstays in England"s existing squad, has been ruled out. Eric Dier, who has revitalized his professional career by playing first-team football at Bayern Munich, has also been ruled out of the squad. Furthermore, their replacement, Tyrone Mings, who had 18 A-match caps to his name, had been out of the squad for over a year.

 

Aside from Stones, 30, who has 72 caps, England"s center backs are all newcomers. Mark Gehi is 24 with 11 caps, Ezri Consa is 27 with four caps, and Lewis Dunk is 33 with six caps. Joe Gomes, who was selected as a full-back but can also play center-back in an ?? emergency, is 27 years old with 15 A matches under his belt.

 

The rookie center backs have rarely played together without an established veteran like Stones. The only time the combination of Gehi and Dunk was deployed was in a 3-0 win over Bosnia and Herzegovina on April 4. All of the other recent A matches have been about testing out which of the new center backs works best with Stones or Maguire in the middle and rotating between Dunk and Gehi.

England are the favorites to win the tournament, but there is no such thing as an easy group at the Euros. Serbia and Denmark are two teams that could upset England at any moment. If a rushed center-back combination has to be deployed against these two, it"s a big risk. The only way to overcome the crisis is for the new center backs in the national team to prove their recent rise in the professional ranks.

England also have a problem at full-back. Their only left-footed left-back, Luke Shaw, was called up to the Euro squad with an injury, meaning right-backs Kieran Trippier or Joe Gomes will have to play in games where Shaw is unavailable.

 

Southgate has vowed to step down as manager of the national team if they don"t win the tournament. Southgate has had some notable success in recent major tournaments, including the quarterfinals of the 2018 World Cup in Russia and the runners-up spot at Euro 2020, but he hasn"t been able to cap it off with a title.

 

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