England suffer injury blow as Ollie Watkins taken off after agonising collision with post

Ollie Watkins has been substituted after a brutal collision with the postagainst Wales. The Aston Villa star attempted to get on the end of a cross before sliding at speed into the upright.

The striker, deputising for Harry Kane, was replaced at half-time by Thomas Tuchel. Watkins had looked in significant pain before attempting to continue in the dying moments of the opening half.

Marcus Rashford was introduced for the second period in Watkins' place. But the Villa star had already made an impression after getting on the scoresheet before clattering into the post.

The 29-year-old's Aston Villa team-mate Morgan Rogers opened the scoring at Wembley, finishing well from close range. Watkins soon matched his effort to hand England a 2-0 lead after just 11 minutes.

Bukayo Saka added an outstanding third before the half was out to leave Tuchel's side well in the ascendancy. But Watkins will have been frustrated not to take further advantage of a rare opportunity to start.

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England captain Kane was unavailable on Thursday after picking up a foot injury, and is likely going to return in time for Latvia on Tuesday. "Harry will miss the game," Tuchel said ahead of Wales.

"He got a kick in his last match with Bayern Munich. It was too painful to kick a ball, it was too risky that he gets another kick and will just like be in an up and down situation pain-wise, so we gave him the chance that everything calms down."

Speaking about his squad for this camp, Tuchel expressed the importance of building a strong team, and not just a collection of players. “We can only make it happen [a World Cup win] if we arrive with a strong, strong team,” Tuchel said.

“I just watched a documentary on the New England Patriots and saw a quote there: 'We don't collect the most talented players, we build a team'. I cannot agree more. That's what we're trying to do.

“We decided to stick mostly with the team that had a brilliant camp last time. Already we have some injuries, we cannot play with the same XI against Serbia, because four players are already missing. It's natural we have changes.

“But we believe in what we're building, we believe in what we feel, we believe in what we're seeing with this team and this squad and the competition is on.

“I'm not surprised I'm questioned about my decisions and people agree or don't agree but that's the nature of the job. The feedback after our last match was very positive and all the credit goes to the team. The fans in the stadium and at home felt we played as a team, that was most important."

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