MR RELIABLE WILL HAVE TO LEAD FROM FRONT TONIGHT

HAVING once hoped to test his strongest XI in friendlies against Brazil and Belgium over the past week, Gareth Southgate has instead found himself in a position familiar to every Sunday league manager to have ever laid out a set of cones.

- Malik Ouzia

Plagued by more drop-outs than the local sixth-form college, the Three Lions boss has been left cobbling together a patchwork side, only a step or two shy of calling in the ringers as he ponders how best to make use of the final game before he names his squad for Euro 2024.

Kyle Walker? His car's knackered. Bukayo Saka? His mum says he has to go to church. Harry Kane? Straight to voicemail. Ugh, fine. Has anyone got Rico Lewis's number?

Inevitably, though, Southgate still has Declan Rice, first man to help put up the nets, a reassuring constant that both David Moyes and Mikel Arteta have come to take similarly for granted, and with good reason, too.

Over the past three Premier League seasons, Rice has missed a grand total of three matches; two to illness, one to suspension and none to injury. For England, since his debut five years ago this week, he has been unavailable for just one camp and been rested only twice in almost two-and-a-half years. In fact, as he prepares to win his 50th cap at Wembley tonight — and first as captain — the only slight surprise is that four men have got there faster, the teenage talents of Raheem Sterling, Michael Owen, Wayne Rooney and Marcus Rashford all quicker out of the traps.