England boss Gareth Southgate will include several players who are injury doubts when he names a training squad ahead of Euro 2024 on Tuesday.
Southgate adopted a similar strategy three years ago ahead of the last European Championship when he called up a 33-man squad before it was whittled down to 26 on the eve of the finals.
A group of around 30 players will be selected on Tuesday and Manchester United defender Luke Shaw is set to get the nod despite his ongoing injury issues.
Shaw has not played for Manchester United since February due to a muscle problem and last week Erik ten Hag admitted the left-back was a major doubt to feature in Saturday’s FA Cup final.
Nevertheless, Shaw is likely to be given the chance to prove his fitness by Southgate after a string of excellent displays at previous major tournaments.
Bukayo Saka, Marcus Rashford and Harry Kane are also set to be included despite recent fitness issues.
Jude Bellingham’s involvement with Real Madrid in the Champions League final at Wembley on June 1 means he could miss both of the Euro 2024 warm-up fixtures against Bosnia and Herzegovina (June 3) and Iceland (June 7), but he will still be named in the squad.
Southgate will also sweat on the fitness of his players in the all-Manchester FA Cup final, with nine potential candidates to play in Germany this summer hopeful of being involved at Wembley.
Another unwelcome headache for Southgate is the post-season friendly between Tottenham and Newcastle in Melbourne, which takes place on Wednesday.
Southgate has to submit his final 26-man group to UEFA by June 7.
The England boss did receive some good injury news at the weekend as Newcastle goalkeeper Nick Pope and Crystal Palace centre-back Marc Guehi both started after recovering from long injury absences.
But Ben Chilwell was not in Chelsea’s squad for their win over Bournemouth, while a question mark remains over Blues captain Reece James after his recent return from a hamstring injury, especially given the competition in the right-back area with Kyle Walker and Kieran Trippier available again.
Harry Maguire did not play in Manchester United’s win at Brighton while John Stones failed to make it on the pitch as Manchester City sealed the league title against West Ham, but both centre-backs will be in this training squad.
Everton defender Jarrad Branthwaite missed out on an England debut after a maiden call-up in March but could be rewarded for his fine campaign with another call-up.
Fit-again Trent Alexander-Arnold will return to the fold in midfield to join the likes of Declan Rice, Jordan Henderson, Conor Gallagher and Kobbie Mainoo, who impressed during his outings against Brazil and Belgium, while Crystal Palace duo Eberechi Eze and Adam Wharton are in-form options.
Southgate has a dearth of options in attack and this bloated training squad means Ivan Toney and Ollie Watkins could both get the nod, while Jarrod Bowen and Anthony Gordon – both absent on the final day – are likely to get opportunities to prove their fitness.
Jack Grealish may return, but Ben White has made himself unavailable for international duty and the door is seemingly still shut on Kalvin Phillips and Raheem Sterling.