having not played for england since the euros final defeat last summer, marcus rashford is back, as is manchester city s kalvin phillips, who only returned from shoulder surgery last night ahead of a first ever winter world cup. there s no question injury has influenced our squad selection, and some of that injury has come because of the density of the matches, because of the unique nature of this season. before russia, we had, ithink, 28 days with the team. we ve got four days on the training pitch effectively this time so much harder. meanwhile, amid a build up overshadowed by concerns over the treatment of migrant workers and the criminalisation of same sex relationships, fifa has urged teams to focus on the football. it s quite clear they d rather you didn t talk about human rights. is that naive? i think it s optimistic of them. i think we ve always spoken when we ve felt it s appropriate. i don t see that changing. captain harry kane will wear a rainbow armband in qatar as part o
aside from the football, southgate has been highlighting what they re doing to focus attention on human rights issues in qatar. the fa has announced the players will wear a one love rainbow armband at matches, to support lgbtq+ fans. they re also backing calls for compensation to be awarded in cases where workers are injured or worse in world cup building projects. the people i ve spoken to have sort of explained to me human rights lawyers, in particular that there s not a lot more the players in particular can do than talk about those issues and put them on the table. because, in the end, we re not you know, we re asking for change in a country that we re respectful of, that has made a lot of progress, but also we don t have any control over. now, we ve seen the first example of a football club, moving a kick off time to save on energy costs, in the light of soaring bills. league 2 mansfield town have moved the start time of their match against walsall,