Whether Gareth Southgate intended to call up James Justin to his England World Cup squad on Thursday may for ever be a mystery after the Leicester defender was carried off on a stretcher during the second half of a routine Carabao Cup victory over Newport County. Southgate is already fretting over his full-back options with Ben Chilwell ruled out and Reece James and Kyle Walker major doubts. Justin, who is thought to have been on Southgate’s provisional 55-man long-list for Qatar, was forced off after an innocuous collision with Newport’s Liverpool loanee Adam Lewis soon after the hour and will undergo a scan on Wednesday to determine the extent of his injury.
He made his playing comeback in January after missing almost a year of action with an anterior cruciate ligament injury. It was a cruel way for Justin’s night to finish given the 24-year-old had set Leicester on the path to victory with a stunning left-foot shot that cracked in off a post before Jamie Vardy scored two second-half goals as Brendan Rodgers’s side eased into the last 16 of the competition. Perhaps Justin took inspiration from Kevin De Bruyne, whose recent match-winning free-kick here for Manchester City also pinged in off the upright.
