The official reason Lewis Hall sat out for England as Newcastle United watch on
Newcastle United defender Lewis Hall watched from the bench as England lost 3-2 to Spain in the Nations League.
England manager Thomas Tuchel revealed Lewis Hall suffered an ‘injury scare’ after joining up with the squad ahead of the Nations League match against Spain.
Hall, who has enjoyed a fine start to the season with Newcastle United, returned to the England senior squad for the first time since his World Cup snub. The 22-year-old spoke previously about his frustration at missing out on his first World Cup but vowed to make an impact on his return.
But the left-back was dealt a minor injury blow that ruled him out of some training sessions. As a result he was an unused substitute in Saturday’s 3-2 defeat to Spain at Wembley Stadium.
Lamine Yamal put the world champions ahead early on before goals from Anthony Gordon and Harry Kane saw England in front at the break. Kane then missed a penalty that would have put England 3-1 up before Spain hit back moments later.
Hall could only watch from the sidelines as Nico O'Reilly, who was selected ahead of him at left-back, made a mistake that allowed Alex Baena to capitalise and make it 2-2. Mikel Oyarzabal then grabbed the winner for Spain.
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When asked about Hall’s lack of involvement in the match, Tuchel explained: “He missed some training sessions with a bit of an injury scare, Lewis Hall.
“That's why I was a bit hesitant to put him out there today. But he's an option. He trained well in the end of the week but he was out of training in the beginning of the week and we just didn't want to take any risk because there was a lot of high-speed running to do, there was a lot of defending to do, of course against Lamine Yamal. I just didn't want to risk it.
“But Lewis is always in our discussions on the left-back position. He is the one who actually plays left-back in his club. Nico plays many, many times in central midfield. That sort of situation, nothing. So he will fight for his minutes and for his matches. Still three matches to go.”
England now face Czechia away on Tuesday before playing Croatia next Saturday. They return to Wembley Stadium on October 6 to play Czechia again and conclude their international break.