James Justin injury latest as Leicester City full-back pushes for home England debut

James Justin is pushing to make his home England debut this weekend after recovering from a calf problem in time for the Nations League clash with Italy.

The Leicester City full-back’s first senior appearance for the Three Lions ended after just 45 minutes last weekend when he was substituted at half-time during the 1-0 loss to Hungary. He had a calf complaint, but manager Gareth Southgate suggested Justin would have been replaced anyway.

The 24-year-old then sat out of England’s 1-1 draw with Germany in midweek, but has returned to training ahead of a repeat of last summer’s European Championships final. Only Phil Foden (Covid) and Kalvin Phillips (dead leg) are doubts for England, and Southgate said there are players he wants to take a look at on Saturday night.

“We’ve got to think about some things we want to see and the freshness of the team,” he said at a press conference on Friday. “This is a good game for some of the other players to come into it.

“It’s a top-level game and I think it’s a good sign to trust the players going into it. If we only give players certain types of matches, you don’t find out enough about them, and they don’t find out the tactical challenges. For us, it’s a balance always of knowing we’ve got to win matches, but also trying to find out about the players and them getting good experiences.”

“We could get 90 minutes out of anyone in the squad, but whether we do that is a different matter. All of the players are physically in good condition.”

The game will be played behind closed doors at Wolves’ Molineux as a result of the disorder at Wembley for the final, Uefa handing the FA a two-match crowd ban, one suspended. There will be 3,000 under-14s there though who are permitted under Uefa