Harry Maguire trained with the squad again on Monday as England returned to work at St George’s Park following their Wembley win against Croatia.
Gareth Southgate’s men became the first Three Lions side to triumph in their European Championship opener as Raheem Sterling’s strike proved enough to see off their 2018 World Cup semi-final foes.
Sunday’s matchwinner and the other 10 that started the 1-0 victory played out in sweltering conditions did recovery work away from the main group on Monday afternoon having returned from London
Dean Henderson was on the bench against Croatia but was not involved in the main session due to an ongoing minor issue, but Manchester United team-mate Maguire was in the 14-man training group.
The 28-year-old was always going to be a long shot for the Group D opener after sustaining ankle ligament damage on May 9.
Maguire has not featured for club or country since then but is making steady progress in his rehabilitation.
The centre-back was among the three members of Southgate’s 26-man squad not to make the matchday squad of 23 at Wembley.
Ben Chilwell and Jadon Sancho were the other players not to make the cut, albeit those decisions were not injury related and they both trained at St George’s Park on Monday.
“With Harry he’s progressing well, he’ll train again with a bit more of the group, a little bit more of the session,” Southgate said after the Croatia game. “That’s a positive, heading in a good direction.
“With Ben and Jadon, this was the downside of a squad of 26 to have to have conversations with boys that don’t deserve to be left out.
“But we’ve got to cover certain positions and for this game we went a certain route with Tripps [Kieran Trippier] at left-back.
“Everybody knows the competition for places in those attacking areas.
“So through no fault of their own we have to make a decision somewhere along the line and whoever we did that with is going to be a very good player who didn’t deserve it.”
Southgate had expressed concerns about the merits of an expanded squad after March’s World Cup triple-header, saying there was a skill to picking 23 players.
Then there is the potential negative impact of players missing out, although the Three Lions boss said that had not been an issue with Sancho and Chilwell.
“They haven’t because of how professionally they took those discussions and how much respect they’ve shown for the whole group,” Southgate added.
“As have lots of substitutes who are good players who haven’t been able to get on the pitch (against Croatia).
“We know that to be a successful team this is one of the areas that’s got to be right.
“We don’t win (Sunday’s) game without the way players prepared for the friendlies.
“Without the way the players who didn’t make the final squad of 26 contributed through that preparation period.
“All of those factors come into a team getting the sort of result it didy. That’s a team – that’s what it’s about. We’ve got to continue that right the way through this tournament.”
