Gareth Southgate Reveals Bizarre Tribute England Players Paid to Injured Danny Welbeck

​Gareth Southgate has praised the togetherness of his players after they paid a slightly strange tribute to injured striker Danny Welbeck.

Welbeck was named in Southgate's squad last Thursday but suffered a serious injury later that day, breaking his ankle in Arsenal's Europa League stalemate against Sporting CP.

Southgate revealed that Welbeck was in his players' thoughts as they prepared for Thursday's friendly against the United States at Wembley.

"Last night they were watching the TV with a photo of Danny Welbeck by the side of it. That’s the bond that this group have," said Southgate, quoted by the ​Evening Standard.

​Wayne Rooney's farewell appearance has dominated headlines this week, but he will start on the bench on Thursday. Southgate admits that he is undecided on when Rooney will be introduced.

England Press Conference

"I don't want to pin an exact time on it because we don't know how the exact flow of the game is going to go... but I can see in training it won't change the quality of what we are doing," he said.

When ​Fabian Delph, England's captain on the night, was asked if he would give the captaincy to Rooney, he joked: "I probably won't get the armband again so probably not!" before adding: "As soon as he comes on tomorrow, I'll be giving him that armband back."


Southgate said that there will be 'some debuts' on Thursday. There are four uncapped players in the England squad including ​Bournemouth striker Callum Wilson and ​Brighton defender Lewis Dunk.


Source : 90min