England boss Roy Hodgson has confirmed that Arsenal defender Kieran Gibbs will be drafted into the starting line-up after Leighton Baines had to withdraw until late moment due to an injury.
After the retirement of Ashley Cole, Baines has been the preferred first choice for the England national team. Gibbs, though, has been trying to get a place in the team with some impressive performances for Arsenal. Despite being at the prime of his career, the 25-year-old has largely been playing second fiddle to the likes of Baines and Ashley Cole.
He will have a great opportunity to show his quality after Hodgson said thatGibbs will start against Slovenia. This is a crucial Euro 2016 qualifying match and England will be hoping to maintain their 100% record. It is also highly likely thatGibbs will continue to retain his spot, provided he does not put in a bad performance against the Slovenians, for the upcoming friendly against Scotland. Manchester United left back Luke Shaw may have been in position to claim a starting spot, but the former Southampton man has been plagued by injury problems and poor form this season. Shaw was not included in the squad for the recent round of international matches.
“We were about to head into a game situation. We’d only just begun when he felt his hamstring. Immediately he needed to stop training because he’s an experienced player. He obviously realised that something wasn’t right. I can’t tell you the extent. We’ll have to wait until the doctors at Everton do their analysis.It did mean obviously that he was out of the question for tomorrow and so Kieran Gibbs is the one who’s going to come in. Unfortunately we’d given our squad at 11am as we are duty-bound to do by UEFA and because with Luke Shaw there were three left-backs,” said Hodgson.