Luke Shaw shrugs off injury fears and says England will ‘give their lives’ for Euro 2020 glory
Several of Shaw’s England team-mates are carrying injuries heading into the tournament
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Your support makes all the difference.Luke Shaw has insisted that the England players carrying injuries after a long and gruelling season at club level are prepared to ‘give their lives’ for the team at Euro 2020 in order to make their country proud.
The Manchester United left-back will go to the tournament in good shape after enjoying the best form of his career but there are question marks over several others in Gareth Southgate’s squad, including Shaw’s club team-mate Marcus Rashford.
After United’s Europa League final defeat to Villarreal last month, Rashford said that he could “show you five, six players including myself” in the United dressing room who have played through the pain barrier this season.
Harry Maguire, the United captain, is meanwhile likely to miss England’s Group D opener against Croatia on Sunday as he recovers from an ankle ligament injury, while Liverpool’s Jordan Henderson has only just returned to fitness following groin surgery.
Shaw’s international career has been affected by injury in the past but the 25-year-old said that the squad are determined to put injuries and fatigue to one side for a month and give their all to win a major international tournament.
When asked about Rashford’s comments, Shaw said: “Of course and I think he’s right. I think we all love football so much that at times we're going to feel pains and niggles but we all want to play, we all want to be on the pitch doing what we love doing.
“We all want to push ourselves even at times when maybe we have setbacks or knocks and you just try and fight through it because we want to give our best for the team and be out there on the pitch.”
Shaw said that the break between the end of the club season and the start of the tournament this weekend has allowed for rest and recuperation, and that he expects every member of the squad to be “100 per cent ready”.
The England international reiterated, however, that fatigue could not be a consideration and that he and his team-mates were ready to give everything.
“It's been a very hard gruelling season with a lot of games but I think when it comes to a major tournament with your country fatigue for me goes out the window," he said.
"You want to give your life for this team, you want to give every single thing you've got left to make the team happy and to make the whole nation happy.
“Like I said, fatigue isn't an option really. I think we've got an amazing settings here, the recovery stations and the staff putting things into place are unbelievable, and things like that are going in the right direction.
“I'm pretty sure everyone's going to be 100% ready for each game no matter how many games there are, no matter whether they're close or not. The settings here at this camp are really perfect and everyone's going to be 100% each game.”
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