Joe Gomez has been handed a warning by his national team boss Gareth Southgate over his much-anticipated return to the England fold following his long-term injury layoff last season.
The Liverpool central defender had missed a major chunk of the 2020-21 campaign with a serious knee injury he sustained while on international duty with The Three Lions in November 2020.
Gomez was not issued a recall by Southgate for the ongoing World Cup qualifiers fixture list for England with the gaffer hoping to go ahead with his regular options of Harry Maguire and John Stones.
Reports from The Daily Mirror quote Southgate who has voiced some concerns over Gomez’s inclusion into the England fold in a timely manner after being on the sidelines for a significant period of time this past year.
Southgate admitted that regular minutes on the football pitch at the club level was key to Gomez proving his fitness to the national side in the time to come.
“Joe we kept in contact with throughout his rehab. We would be very cautious about when we put Joe back in.
“The rehab from that injury is a really important one to get right, he needs to be settled in with Liverpool with plenty of minutes on the pitch feeling in a good place with al of that before we start thinking of selecting him with us.
“But he’s a boy we think a lot of and its good to see him close and available for selection which is great.”
