Someone associated with the England soccer team has suffered a significant injury at the World Cup, but it’s not quite what you might think.
England manager Gareth Southgate dislocated his shoulder on Wednesday in a jogging accident, and he met the media with his right arm in a sling as a result.
Southgate wasn’t letting the injury get him down, preferring to look on the bright side and crack a few jokes.
“It is better this is me than one of the players,” Southgate said, via the FA’s official website. “They were a bit surprised in the team meeting and were asking ‘what have you been doing!?’ – as always, they were probably quite amused. It is good that we have had a quiet day today so I had prepared the meeting before and we are on to preparations for Panama.
“I am just a bit gutted because I was on for my record 10k time!”
Southgate joked there would be one tangible consequence of his injury.
“I might not be celebrating any goals as athletically in future!” Southgate joked. “The doc has made it clear that punching the air is not an option. We have got such a great support team and they were there very quickly. They were supposed to be relaxing because we let the players have a bit of time off and I am causing them work. We are lucky we have a top-class medical team around us, so it was fine. I had brilliant help from them, and I am just sorry that I managed to ruin their day off.”
Hey, bizarre injuries happen to the best of us. We’re guessing there was a fall involved, in which case the England manager might want to work on his coordination for the future.
