World Cup 2018: England midfielder Dele Alli suffers minor thigh strain
Last updated on .From the section World Cup
England are monitoring the fitness of midfielder Dele Alli after he suffered a minor thigh strain during the 2-1 World Cup win over Tunisia on Monday.
Tottenham's Alli, 22, was substituted after 80 minutes of the match in Volgograd, with England playing Panama in Nizhny Novgorod on Sunday, 24 June.
He went for a scan on Tuesday afternoon as his team-mates trained.
The Football Association has confirmed the assessment showed a minor thigh strain that will need managing.
"Hopefully I am OK. It's my quad," said Alli after Monday's game.
He looked set to come off in the first half after suffering a knock, with Fabian Delph stripped and seemingly ready to come on, but that substitution did not happen with Ruben Loftus-Cheek replacing Alli with 10 minutes left.
"We had to keep monitoring Dele," said England boss Gareth Southgate on Monday.
"He was feeling a little bit of an issue just before half-time, but he felt he could carry on and I thought the runs that he was making and the way he was pressing the ball was still causing a problem."
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Southgate has made a lot of good, logical decisions until now. Dropping unfit or off form players etc.
Alli isn't 100%. Put RLC in, and re-assess (or hopefully rest) Alli for Belgium.
Why risk Dele against Panama when RLC could do just as good a job if not better.
Then choose between the 2 for Belgium.
Hopefully he is fit for the Belgium game if he doesn’t make Sunday’s game with Panama.
~Get behind the team folks, plenty of time to criticise when they get knocked out
Drop Young - play Rose
C'mon England!
Jamie Vardy needs game time to keep him sharp, and should play at least 30 minutes.
Finishing second might be more beneficial.
Loftus-Cheek was excellent when he came on and we have to be positive with our line-ups if we're going to be a different England side to what we've gotten used to.
GS musn't be tempted to start both Henderson and Dier against Belgium and we need those creative midfielders in the side.
He is too attack minded to play in that Belgium game! I know Jordan Henderson played well against Tunisia but I wouldn't want to see him try and handle De Bruyne by himself. We must play Dier or Loftus Cheek alongside Henderson in that Belgium match otherwise we'll be ripped apart.