We say ‘surprisingly’, although in truth – the only thing surprising is that Daniel Sturridge wasn’t already in England’s starting side…
Mirror reporter Dave Kidd (alongside the idiotic John Moss) has suggested the Liverpool man will be brought straight back into the side for Thursday’s crunch Group B clash with Wales.
Roy Hodgson went with Harry Kane up top on his own against Russia, and chose not to use Jamie Vardy, Marcus Rashford or Sturridge – but the Mirror are convinced that our striker will now come into the reckoning having impressed enormously in training.
Because Wales deploy three centre-backs, Hodgson wants pace – which Sturridge has in abundance – while Vardy has dropped down the pecking order following his poor display versus Portugal in the final warmup game.
Liverpool fans are naturally worried about Hodgson ever using Sturridge, due to the fact our forward has come back from international duty injured on more than one occasion – but those problems are mainly from training – not games.
If England fail to beat Wales, we could realistically not reach the knockout rounds, so it’s imperative Hodgson picks his best side; and for us – that includes Sturridge – whose goal:minute ratio in the Premier League was actually better than Kane and Vardy’s last term.