Gary Cahill fit to face Brazil as Chelsea defender provides England with fitness boost

Back in action | Cahill missed the Germany game with a back injury
Paul Ellis/AFP/Getty Images
Simon Johnson13 November 2017

England defender Gary Cahill is ready to face Brazil and their star striker Neymar after recovering from a back injury.

Cahill sat out England's goal-less draw with Germany on Friday night after sustaining the problem in Chelsea's 1-0 win over Manchester United eight days ago.

The 31-year-old was allowed to report 24 hours late to England's camp due to being assessed by Chelsea's medical department, but still missed the final training session leading up to the international friendly.

However, Cahill has told Standard Sport that he has fully recovered from the back complaint and is hoping to be named in the first XI at Wembley.

​Neymar is the most expensive player in world football having joined Paris St Germain from Barcelona for £198m in the summer.

He has scored 12 goals in 17 appearances for club and country this term, including a strike in Brazil's 3-1 win over Japan on Saturday.

Cahill, who is expected to replace the injured Phil Jones, will be hoping to stop the 25-year-old Brazil forward as part of England's back three and is in contention to be named captain too.

Tottenham midfielder Eric Dier wore the armband in his absence and that of a number of other candidates - Harry Kane, Joe Hart and Jordan Henderson - against the Germans.

But coach Gareth Southgate may decide to return it to the experienced Chelsea man, who has been skipper on five occasions - the last of which was against Germany in March. Hart is set to return in goal so will be another option.

Meanwhile, Germany international Ilkay Gundogan has backed Southgate's side to be a threat at the World Cup in Russia.

Gundogan was impressed by England's display on Friday night, especially with several senior players unavailable through injury.

Gundogan said: "I like the team honestly. They played very well during qualifying from the group for the World Cup. It was nearly perfect.

"They have a very deep squad with excellent players. Against us they were missing a few, but (despite that) they played very well. I think they are also a contender for the World Cup in the summer."

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