Manchester City star admits fear of horror bone break ahead of Euro 2024 | OneFootball

A fractured foot was feared ahead of a complete diagnosis on an injury sustained by John Stones on the eve of this summer’s European Championships.

The Manchester City defender was pulled off after 45 minutes against Iceland’s in England’s final warm-up match before the tournament in Germany last week, with concerns over a first-half injury that appeared to throw his fate into jeopardy.

However, having recovered from the injury sufficiently, another setback would be issued upon the 30-year-old, as the former Everton man was restricted to his own quarters during England’s first few days at their Germany training base due to illness.

That would prove to be the last of Stones’ problems pre-tournament, however the versatile defender has now admitted the extent of the scare that could have ended his hopes of contributing at the highest level after a challenging campaign on a personal note.

Speaking to the media ahead of England’s opening match of their European Championships campaign this summer, John Stones has revealed how he feared the worst on an injury sustained in the nation’s final warm-up match before the tournament.

“I was worried at first, just the mechanism of how it happened, how I landed on my foot,” Stones said of the problem suffered in the 0-1 home defeat to Iceland last week. “I knew it wasn’t my knee or my ankle, because of the mechanism in how I landed.”

He continued, “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 and we got some scans back and (it was) really minor stuff and came through it, which is great.”

However, no injury was going to stop Stones from fighting to make the plane to Germany, the Manchester City defender insisted. “I thought if I have fractured it, get the doctors, tablets, injections, whatever it is, I don’t want to miss out.

“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. If it was bad, I was ready to go and gladly it wasn’t.”

John Stones is widely expected to start alongside Crystal Palace’s Marc Guehi for the tournament this summer, with Harry Maguire left out of Gareth Southgate’s squad due to a lack of match fitness and no time to recover from a muscular injury.

Despite the relative inexperience in working alongside one another at senior international level, Stones has spoken highly of the Crystal Palace centre-back, and believes that his qualities can compliment those of Guehi.

England take on Serbia in their opening European Championships Group Stage match on Sunday night, hoping to take a strong result into contests against Slovenia and Denmark during the other two matches.