Luke Shaw declares himself ready to play for England in Euro 2024 knockouts in huge boost to Gareth Southgate
LUKE SHAW has declared himself fit finally for England at Euro 2024.
The Manchester United star, 28, has not played since February due to injury.
Despite that, Gareth Southgate still selected him as the only recognised left-back in his Three Lions squad for Euro 2024.
Shaw has been unable to feature yet in Germany with right-footer Kieran Trippier stepping in to play on the opposite side.
But now Southgate and England have received a huge boost after Shaw was deemed fit to make an appearance.
And that means that he could feature in the last-16 clash with Slovakia on Sunday.
Southgate views the 28-year-old defender as a crucial part of his plans which led to his “calculated risk” to select him in his squad.
But England’s attack has been destabilised and looked out of sorts without a natural left-footer at full-back, even though Trippier’s defensive abilities have been on full display.
The Three Lions were held to a stalemate by Slovenia on Tuesday in their final group game, which ensured top spot.
However, both Phil Foden, who has returned to the UK for the birth of his third child, and Jude Bellingham, who were deployed to rotate between the left and central in the game, were both spotted venting their frustrations at Trippier after he failed to pass to them down that side.
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But now the return of Shaw will bolster England’s attack as well as their backline.
The ex-Southampton ace produced three assists and scored in the final of the last Euros.
And he followed that up by creating the most chances of any England player at the World Cup in Qatar in 2022.
Having missed the 1-0 opening win over Serbia, the plan was originally for Shaw to get some minutes in the second match against Denmark.
But he failed to make the bench for the 1-1 bore draw and only made his training comeback on Monday, meaning that it was too late for him to feature versus Slovenia.
That means that Shaw has been unable to build up any minutes to ensure he is fully match fit for the knockouts.
After Tuesday’s match, when asked on whether he was fit, Shaw replied “next game” to journalists to show that he believes he can still play a big role for his country at the tournament.
There will still be big worries over Shaw considering that he only played 15 times last season.
A muscle injury forced him to miss the first three months for United before he was sidelined again with a hamstring issue for four weeks at the start of 2024.
Shaw then only played five times before the hamstring injury against Luton ended his domestic campaign.
