Thigh injury prevents England’s Alli from training

Friday, 22 June 2018 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

REUTERS: England attacking midfielder Dele Alli missed team training on Thursday as he bids to recover from a thigh injury in time for the side’s second World Cup Group G encounter against Panama.

The Tottenham player picked up the knock during the 2-1 win over Tunisia on Monday with Alli tweeting that he was working to get back to full fitness.

“Frustrating to have picked up a slight injury on Monday. Will do everything in my power to get back to full fitness asap,” he wrote.

England take on Panama in Nizhny Novgorod on Sunday before completing the pool phase against Belgium in Kaliningrad next Thursday.

Neymar returns to training day after recovering from sore ankle

REUTERS: Brazilian forward Neymar was back training normally on Wednesday, a day after sitting out Tuesday’s session because of a sore right ankle.

The Brazilian Football Confederation released a video that showed the Paris St Germain player training with the rest of the squad before they flew off to St Petersburg for Friday’s Group E match against Costa Rica.

Brazil drew their opening match 1-1 with Switzerland and Costa Rica lost their opener 1-0 to Serbia, who now top the group.

Neymar became the most expensive player in the world last year when he joined PSG from Barcelona for a fee of 222 million euros (£ 195 million).

He missed a large part of the season with a fractured right foot and sprained ankle but returned to play in Brazil’s final two friendlies before the World Cup began.