John Stones injury: England defender ruled out of Andorra and Serbia qualifiers | OneFootball

Manchester City defender arrived at camp with an injury he has been unable to shake

England have suffered a blow after John Stones was ruled out of their World Cup qualifiers against Andorra and Serbia due to injury.

The centre-back has not been able to do so, though, and he left the squad on Friday to return to Manchester City.

“Unfortunately, John Stones just left,” said Tuchel on Friday morning. “He came with minor issues, muscular issues, to camp.

“And he didn’t progress as we thought and hoped he would, so he left camp this morning because we will not take the risk, not against Andorra and also, unfortunately, not against Serbia.

“Everyone else is available. We had 21 players yesterday in training, 21 players today in training, and we make sure, hopefully that everyone is available for tomorrow.”

Captain Harry Kane will start

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Tuchel has vowed to name a strong team against Andorra, despite England’s toughest qualifier against Serbia taking place three days later.

The England boss confirmed captain Harry Kane will start against Andorra at Villa Park - and he has no fears about players starting twice in quick succession.

“We have a condensed period of three camps, competition is on, and that means we will start with the team that we trust and with the best team possible for this game - and then we will manage the second game,” said Tuchel.

“We will not do it backwards and manage theoretically a more difficult away game than a home game. We will not start getting caught up in experiments like this.

“Everything that counts is today and tomorrow, and then we do our assessment after the match and see who is available.

“The players will start to play, anyway, two matches a week, three matches a week, after this international camp.

“So, I don’t see a problem why they cannot start one week earlier and play Saturday, then Tuesday.”