Southgate defends Stones selection despite injury against Belgium

England boss Gareth Southgate defended his decision to play John Stones, after he limped off after 10 minutes

Transcript

00:00 How is he and whether beforehand it was at all a risk playing him in the two

00:06 matches? Well no, the first game we measure everything and the first game

00:16 for him wasn't a game that was a high level in terms of the intensity. We've

00:22 done exactly what Holland did with Virgil van Dijk tonight, what Norway did

00:30 with Erling Haaland and Odegaard, starting them again. Holland also started

00:35 Aki again so it only ever seems to fall on us when there's a question around

00:40 that. Of course we're disappointed if he's got a problem. It seems to be in the

00:48 sort of adductor area so yeah we just have to see. I mean John also came in on

00:52 the back of not having played for two weeks so it's not that it's an overload

00:56 situation but I hate sending players back to their clubs if they're not fully

01:02 fit of course.