Real Football Man All of the Football, All of the time
Disaster for England and for Jack Butland on a personal level as he now looks to set to miss EURO 2016 in a couple of months time due to a fracturing his ankle during England’s friendly win over Germany on Saturday night.
With the squad set to be named in 11 weeks time by Roy Hodgson bar a miraculous recovery it seems as if Butland won’t regain the required level of fitness to make the final list of 23 names that will make the short journey to France in June
England will now only have two Goalkeepers for the friendly against Holland on Tuesday Night with Southampton’s Fraser Forster and Burnley’s Tom Heaton battling to get the nod to start in between the sticks at Wembley
You would also imagine bar injury to those two they have now secured their own places on the plane along with Joe Hart who himself is currently out with a Calf injury although his spell on the sidelines won’t see him miss the competition.
Hodgson certainly can’t afford any more injuries in that department as it’s probably the one position where he isn’t spoiled for choice in terms of selection. Maybe you could make a case for Ben Foster as the third choice but that is about as deep as the selection pool goes.
It will also be a huge amount of frustration for Stoke City and Mark Hughes. They’ve now lost their ‘Keeper in the run in for the end of the season and this could seriously hamper their hopes of finishing in a Europa League place
Butland has arguably one of their stand out players this season and his absence will be a massive blow to Stoke. His performances which have earned him the England call up in the first place have also been a massive factor in getting Stoke 8th in the Premier League
It’s a sad end of the season for Butland but if there is any positive he can take from it is that at his age, he will not only be going to many more major tournaments with England but it’s more than likely that he’ll be the Number 1 also.
