England may soon learn a lesson – they are stronger with Harry Maguire
Maybe, in the end, this is the only way that Harry Maguirewas ever going to be left out of an Englandsquad by Gareth Southgate.
Consider what he has previously overcome to keep his place: mistakes, memes and Mykonos; stripped of his starting place and the captain’s armband at Manchester United; booed by his own supporters with England; and the butt of jokes in the Ghanaian parliament.
And yet Maguire has been the great survivor of the Southgate era, each of those setbacks bouncing off him like an opposition’s in-swinging corner thumped away by his ‘slabhead’.
Since making his debut in October 2017, Maguire has been named in every England squad for which he has been fit and available, on top of several for which he has not been fit and available, including this 33-man preliminary squad for this European Championship.
It was a similar story three years ago, ahead of the last edition of this tournament, when Maguire suffered ankle ligament damage only a month before England’s opening game against Croatia.
Maguire missed that narrow victory at Wembley but was back as an unused substitute for the goalless draw against Scotland, then returned to reclaim his starting place. In the space of five games, he earned a spot in UEFA’s team of the tournament.
Remarkably, the win against Croatia was one of only seven competitive England fixtures in the last seven years that Maguire has missed entirely. On only three occasions has he sat out an international camp — each time through injury.
On Thursday morning, Maguire was out running as part of his tailored training programme. Yet despite that, despite the precedent for him being selected while recovering from injury, and despite how integral he has been at England’s last three major tournaments, Southgate felt selecting Maguire had become one risk too far.
“Harry has made some progress but it’s been complicated,” the England manager explained, hinting that progress has perhaps not been as smooth as he would have liked. “We definitely wouldn’t have had him in the group stages. There were too many hurdles to get through without really being clear of where we might get to.
“You know how I feel about Harry Maguire, what he’s done for England and what he’s done for me as a manager,” he added. “The decision on Harry is totally about his physical condition, recovering from injury. There is no other reason. He’s obviously one of our strongest centre-backs.”
Maybe those words will provide some small consolation to Maguire over the summer. If Southgate felt he could be on the plane, he would be. Not all of the names culled from the 33-man provisional list can take the same solace.
Nevertheless, Maguire was “devastated” not to have been selected. “Despite my best efforts, I have not been able to overcome an injury to my calf,” he posted on social media. “Maybe I pushed myself too hard, to try and make it.”
Maguire has pushed hard to give himself the best opportunity of playing for England this summer, not only in the past few weeks while recovering from this calf injury, but since the very start of a campaign when he was still sidelined at club level under Erik ten Hag.
Maguire regained and earned his starting place at United, taking the opportunity provided by an unrelenting defensive injury crisis. Yet he was just as much a victim of that injury crisis as he was a beneficiary, spending extended periods in the treatment room himself throughout the campaign.
At times, Maguire played through the pain barrier so that United would not be down to the very bare bones.
The 31-year-old barely trained during the week prior to the FA Cupsemi-final against Coventry Cityat Wembley due to a muscular injury he had been carrying for several weeks and had aggravated in the 2-2 draw against Bournemouththe previous weekend.
In the end, he played 120 minutes, emerging as one of the few United players who could take credit out of their near-collapse. Equally, he has been one of the few United players to emerge with credit from a mostly miserable season, despite the challenges he faced at its very start.
England will miss that resilience, a quality Southgate values highly, and so too Maguire’s experience. Although England’s defence will still have international know-how in the form of John Stones’ 71 caps, Maguire’s 63 are more than four times as many as the squad’s next most experienced centre-half, Joe Gomez(14).
Marc Guehiwill likely take Maguire’s starting place and is hugely (and rightly) admired by Southgate, but he only hit double figures in caps at St James’ Park on Monday evening. The last time Guehi and Stones started together was the 4-0 home defeat to Hungary in June 2022.
Maybe it is an opportunity to integrate the next generation. Guehi is still only 23 years old. At 31, Maguire is far from assured of a place at the 2026 World Cup should England qualify, particularly if this is Southgate’s final tournament in charge.
But maybe this is also the time Maguire’s many critics realise something that Southgate and his other advocates have always known, but something that Maguire’s near ever-presence for his country has always hidden: England are a stronger team with him in it.
England Euro 2024 squad in full
Goalkeepers: Dean Henderson(Crystal Palace), Jordan Pickford (Everton), Aaron Ramsdale (Arsenal).
Defenders: Lewis Dunk (Brighton), Joe Gomez (Liverpool), Marc Guehi (Crystal Palace), Ezri Konsa (Aston Villa), Luke Shaw (Manchester United), John Stones (Manchester City), Kieran Trippier (Newcastle), Kyle Walker (Manchester City).
Midfielders: Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool), Conor Gallagher (Chelsea), Kobbie Mainoo (Manchester United), Adam Wharton (Crystal Palace) Declan Rice (Arsenal).
Forwards: Jude Bellingham (Real Madrid), Jarrod Bowen (West Ham), Eberechi Eze (Crystal Palace), Phil Foden (Manchester City), Anthony Gordon(Newcastle), Harry Kane (Bayern Munich), Cole Palmer (Chelsea), Bukayo Saka (Arsenal), Ivan Toney(Brentford), Ollie Watkins(Aston Villa).
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5546793/2024/06/06/harry-maguire-england-injury/
England may soon learn a lesson – they are stronger with Harry Maguire
Maybe, in the end, this is the only way that Harry Maguirewas ever going to be left out of an Englandsquad by Gareth Southgate.
Consider what he has previously overcome to keep his place: mistakes, memes and Mykonos; stripped of his starting place and the captain’s armband at Manchester United; booed by his own supporters with England; and the butt of jokes in the Ghanaian parliament.
And yet Maguire has been the great survivor of the Southgate era, each of those setbacks bouncing off him like an opposition’s in-swinging corner thumped away by his ‘slabhead’.
Since making his debut in October 2017, Maguire has been named in every England squad for which he has been fit and available, on top of several for which he has not been fit and available, including this 33-man preliminary squad for this European Championship.
It was a similar story three years ago, ahead of the last edition of this tournament, when Maguire suffered ankle ligament damage only a month before England’s opening game against Croatia.
Maguire missed that narrow victory at Wembley but was back as an unused substitute for the goalless draw against Scotland, then returned to reclaim his starting place. In the space of five games, he earned a spot in UEFA’s team of the tournament.
Remarkably, the win against Croatia was one of only seven competitive England fixtures in the last seven years that Maguire has missed entirely. On only three occasions has he sat out an international camp — each time through injury.
On Thursday morning, Maguire was out running as part of his tailored training programme. Yet despite that, despite the precedent for him being selected while recovering from injury, and despite how integral he has been at England’s last three major tournaments, Southgate felt selecting Maguire had become one risk too far.
“Harry has made some progress but it’s been complicated,” the England manager explained, hinting that progress has perhaps not been as smooth as he would have liked. “We definitely wouldn’t have had him in the group stages. There were too many hurdles to get through without really being clear of where we might get to.
“You know how I feel about Harry Maguire, what he’s done for England and what he’s done for me as a manager,” he added. “The decision on Harry is totally about his physical condition, recovering from injury. There is no other reason. He’s obviously one of our strongest centre-backs.”
Maybe those words will provide some small consolation to Maguire over the summer. If Southgate felt he could be on the plane, he would be. Not all of the names culled from the 33-man provisional list can take the same solace.
Nevertheless, Maguire was “devastated” not to have been selected. “Despite my best efforts, I have not been able to overcome an injury to my calf,” he posted on social media. “Maybe I pushed myself too hard, to try and make it.”
Maguire has pushed hard to give himself the best opportunity of playing for England this summer, not only in the past few weeks while recovering from this calf injury, but since the very start of a campaign when he was still sidelined at club level under Erik ten Hag.
Maguire regained and earned his starting place at United, taking the opportunity provided by an unrelenting defensive injury crisis. Yet he was just as much a victim of that injury crisis as he was a beneficiary, spending extended periods in the treatment room himself throughout the campaign.
At times, Maguire played through the pain barrier so that United would not be down to the very bare bones.
The 31-year-old barely trained during the week prior to the FA Cupsemi-final against Coventry Cityat Wembley due to a muscular injury he had been carrying for several weeks and had aggravated in the 2-2 draw against Bournemouththe previous weekend.
In the end, he played 120 minutes, emerging as one of the few United players who could take credit out of their near-collapse. Equally, he has been one of the few United players to emerge with credit from a mostly miserable season, despite the challenges he faced at its very start.
England will miss that resilience, a quality Southgate values highly, and so too Maguire’s experience. Although England’s defence will still have international know-how in the form of John Stones’ 71 caps, Maguire’s 63 are more than four times as many as the squad’s next most experienced centre-half, Joe Gomez(14).
Marc Guehiwill likely take Maguire’s starting place and is hugely (and rightly) admired by Southgate, but he only hit double figures in caps at St James’ Park on Monday evening. The last time Guehi and Stones started together was the 4-0 home defeat to Hungary in June 2022.
Maybe it is an opportunity to integrate the next generation. Guehi is still only 23 years old. At 31, Maguire is far from assured of a place at the 2026 World Cup should England qualify, particularly if this is Southgate’s final tournament in charge.
But maybe this is also the time Maguire’s many critics realise something that Southgate and his other advocates have always known, but something that Maguire’s near ever-presence for his country has always hidden: England are a stronger team with him in it.
England Euro 2024 squad in full
Goalkeepers: Dean Henderson(Crystal Palace), Jordan Pickford (Everton), Aaron Ramsdale (Arsenal).
Defenders: Lewis Dunk (Brighton), Joe Gomez (Liverpool), Marc Guehi (Crystal Palace), Ezri Konsa (Aston Villa), Luke Shaw (Manchester United), John Stones (Manchester City), Kieran Trippier (Newcastle), Kyle Walker (Manchester City).
Midfielders: Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool), Conor Gallagher (Chelsea), Kobbie Mainoo (Manchester United), Adam Wharton (Crystal Palace) Declan Rice (Arsenal).
Forwards: Jude Bellingham (Real Madrid), Jarrod Bowen (West Ham), Eberechi Eze (Crystal Palace), Phil Foden (Manchester City), Anthony Gordon(Newcastle), Harry Kane (Bayern Munich), Cole Palmer (Chelsea), Bukayo Saka (Arsenal), Ivan Toney(Brentford), Ollie Watkins(Aston Villa).
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5546793/2024/06/06/harry-maguire-england-injury/
