Malik Ouzia: John Stones returns to England training

Transcript

00:00Good morning again from Blankenhain in Germany, where England are training behind me.

00:04It's day two here at what they hope will be their base throughout the tournament all the way through to the final in Berlin next month.

00:10Once again, we're on John Stone's watch. He's been doing the hokey-cokey in England's sessions this week.

00:15He was back in training on Tuesday, having picked up that ankle knock against Iceland.

00:19Then he was missing yesterday because of an illness that prompted a bit of concern.

00:22But he's back out there today, as indeed is everyone that's part of this England squad.

00:27That is important. It's only a day that he's missed yesterday, but two-fold really for John Stone.

00:32Personally, he's not played loads of football at the back end of the season.

00:35I think he only started one of City's last ten Premier League games.

00:39Obviously, he played the FA Cup final, but then missed that warm-up game against Bosnia as well.

00:43So, it's important for him to be sharpening up ahead of Sunday's opener against Serbia.

00:47And also important for Gareth Southgate to get a look at a couple of different combinations as he tries to chisel a new centre-back partnership.

00:53Obviously, no Harry Maguire, who's played alongside Stones at the last three major tournaments.

00:57Looks like it'll be one of Esri Konta or Mark Gae, potentially a Lewis Duncan contender as well.

01:02But we'll find out more about how things are shaping up as we build up to that game.

01:06And you can find all the latest news and build-up over on Standard Sport.