England's Dele Alli working towards full fitness for Panama game

Published on: 21 June 2018

Dele Alli will do "everything in my power" to reach full fitness in time for England's game with Panama on Sunday.

The Tottenham playmaker suffered a minor thigh strain during the 2-1 victory over Tunisia and underwent a scan on Tuesday afternoon, which confirmed the injury.

On Wednesday night Alli tweeted: "Frustrating to have picked up a slight injury on Monday."

"Will do everything in my power to get back to full fitness asap! #ThreeLions"

Alli looked set to come off during the first half of Tunisia game, with Fabian Delph stripped and seemingly ready to come on, but the 22-year-old lasted until the 80th minute when he was replaced by Ruben Loftus-Cheek.

England manager Southgate had kept tabs on Alli's fitness throughout their World Cup opener after the first-half setback.

"We had to keep monitoring Dele," Southgate said 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."

England have made a winning start to a major tournament for the first time since 2006 and victory over Panama could be enough to book their place in the knockout stages.

Source: Skysports

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