Gary Cahill's England axe is a warning to squad ahead of World Cup, says Jordan Henderson

'Don't relax': Henderson's message to England stars ahead of World Cup
PA
Simon Johnson23 March 2018

Jordan Henderson admits no England player can afford to take their place in the World Cup squad for granted under Gareth Southgate.

The England coach has revealed he already knows the vast majority of the 23 players that will be selected for the tournament in Russia this summer and what his starting XI is going to look like.

That implies the majority of the group picked for Friday's friendly against Holland and Tuesday's encounter with Italy will head to Russia in June.

However, with Southgate dropping the likes of veteran defender Gary Cahill for the first time this month, Henderson insists all the players remain on edge.

When asked what kind of message Cahill's omission had sent out, the midfielder told Standard Sport: "No-one can relax. The coach has his own ideas of what he wants to do and he will definitely not be afraid to do it.

"He is watching all the games and will be looking at people closely in terms of what he wants in the squad, in all areas.

"I have been in football long enough to know that things can change very quickly. You have to be at your best all of the time.

"There is still a lot of time after these two friendlies in terms of club football, there are still a lot of matches.

"A lot of people can get a good run of games and get into form, or pick up injuries. Everybody will have to keep fighting until the World Cup squad is named."

Henderson will captain England against the Netherlands
PA

Henderson, who has been named captain for the encounter with the Dutch in Amsterdam, says it's vital those picked to play don't put their own desire to impress Southgate ahead of what's good for the side.

He added: "A good display in these two matches can help book World Cup places. But I don't think we can think individually, we are a team at the end of the day.

"Even those that don't play, we are a squad of players who work for each other, work together and want to achieve something special in the summer and in the future. So the focus has to be on the collective. That's the main thing.

"We all have one eye on the World Cup because that is what we are preparing for. But ultimately, we are playing Holland tonight and preparing to face Italy a few days later.

"They are two good games for us and hopefully we will learn a lot. We will be able to look at where we need to improve on.

"I think the most important thing is to perform as well as I know we can, to defend as a team and be a threat going forward.

"It will be a tough game because Holland are a good team, but it is a match we are looking forward to."

Southgate hopes Jack Wilshere will recover from a minor knee injury to resume training on Saturday.

The Arsenal midfielder did not make the trip to the Netherlands after sustaining the problem in training yesterday but he could still feature against Italy at Wembley.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in