John Stones has declared himself fully fit to take on Serbia on Sunday after recovering from a sickness bug that confined him to his room at England’s training base, but the defender has revealed he could have missed Euro 2024 because of his injury scare against Iceland.
Stones feared he had broken his right foot in the first minute of England’s friendly defeat last week and has been through the mill before Gareth Southgate’s side face Serbia in their opening game in Gelsenkirchen. The Manchester City centre-back, who is vital to his country’s hopes of bringing home the trophy, missed a day of training after succumbing to illness on Wednesday and fretted after being forced off at half-time in the team’s final warm-up match. Stones was involved in a collision with the Iceland forward Jón Dagur Thorsteinsson and his instant response was coloured by anxiety.
“I was worried at first, just the mechanism of how it happened, how I landed on my foot,” Stones said. “I knew it wasn’t my knee or my ankle, because of the mechanism in how I landed. It was almost like my big toe in the line straight down my foot and you think: ‘I have fractured it’. You think the worst at the start. We got some scans back and it was really minor stuff and came through it, which is great.”
Stones, who was cleared after a scan last Saturday, explained why he did not immediately go off. “I thought: ‘If I have fractured it, get the docs, tablets, injections, whatever it is [to get to the Euros] – I don’t want to miss out,’ which I think with my history of injuries and knowing how to deal with them mentally and being in a positive mind frame in that sense is really beneficial,” he said. “If it was bad, I was ready to go and gladly it wasn’t. It has got better every day.”
The 30-year-old’s role at his fifth major tournament took on even more importance after a calf injury left England unable to select Harry Maguire. The inexperienced Marc Guéhi is set to partner Stones against Serbia, who will be keen to exploit any defensive frailty.
Serbia will hope that Stones, who was back in training on Thursday, has not made a full recovery from his illness. “I haven’t been that bad in I couldn’t tell you how long,” he said.
“It was a rough 36 hours. I didn’t feel great the day before in the open training session but felt good enough and thought it would just pass. I ended up ringing the doc in the early hours of the morning after being up for a few hours and couldn’t take it any more.”
Passing the time in the room was hard. “I felt quite alone to be honest,” Stones said. “I slept. It was difficult because I was having hot and cold sweats. I watched TV and spoke to my family most of the day, which got me through it. I am on track with everyone else and am looking to do my extras to catch up on what I have missed out on and in the gym as well. I feel great physically. I am looking forward to it now.”
Stones backed his City teammate, Phil Foden, to be the player of the tournament. “I think he’s absolutely incredible,” he said. “First how he plays the game, so silky, playing like he’s in the park. He has brought so much to his game – goals, maturity, his pressing. This season has been incredible for him and I’m sure he will bring that to the tournament.”
