Injuries and international duty aren’t always a simple thing, and while Liverpool recently announced that Trent Alexander-Arnold wasn’t fit to join the England national team for their upcoming friendly matches, that didn’t necessarily mean England wouldn’t call him up.
There have been past instances of countries calling up players with reported knocks and niggles to run the proverbial rule over them with their own doctors. Any concerns of such on this occasion, though, appear put to bed with confirmation from the English FA that Alexander-Arnold wouldn’t be joining the national team today.
That news came at the same time as reports emerged that Naby Keïta was withdrawing from the Guinean national team for their upcoming matches against South Africa and Zambia due to a minor knee issue. His national team have also now confirmed his absence.
For England, with World Cup qualification secure, the upcoming games against Switzerland and Ivory Coast are meaningless friendlies. The same is true for Guinea, though in their case there will be no trip to the 2022 edition of the World Cup, scheduled for 21 November to 18 December of this year in Qatar.
For Alexander-Arnold, the hope is that the world’s best right back will be fit in time for Liverpool’s league game against Manchester City on the 10th of April. In Keïta’s case, the hope is that the player might be ready to play as soon as Watford on the 2nd.
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