TRENT ALEXANDER-ARNOLD is a major doubt for the European Championship after suffering a thigh injury in England’s friendly win over Austria at Middlesbrough’s Riverside Stadium last night.

Bukayo Saka’s 56th-minute strike ensured England made a winning start to their warm-up schedule, but there the evening ended on a sour note as Alexander-Arnold was forced off the field.

The Liverpool full-back was in obvious discomfort as he hobbled around the perimeter of the pitch at the Riverside, and had to be helped down the tunnel by a member of England’s medical staff.

He will be scanned later today, with Southgate able to call up a replacement if Alexander-Arnold is diagnosed with an injury that would prevent him from competing at the Euros.

“It looks like a thigh injury, but we don’t know the extent at the moment,” said the England boss. “Clearly, it’s not a good sign that he had to walk off and looked in some discomfort with it. We’ll know more in the next 24 or 48 hours.”

Jack Grealish’s replacement midway through the second half was pre-planned, with Southgate pleased with the Aston Villa midfielder’s contribution as he continues his comeback from injury.

However, the non-appearance of Jordan Henderson is a major concern, with the Wearsider having undergone another scan on the injury that has plagued him throughout the second half of the season with Liverpool.

“With Jack, we just felt that was enough time,” said Southgate. “I think you could see there’s a bit of sharpness still coming and we didn’t want to overplay him through that period.

“With Jordan, we wanted to involve him today, that was the original plan, but this morning, he wasn’t too happy with how he felt. We’ve scanned him just to be certain, and there was no problem with the scan, so he’ll be able to resume training, but we took the decision to leave him out of this game.”

Before kick-off, a significant number of supporters booed when the players from both teams took the knee to make a stand against racism. The boos were quickly drowned out by a round of applause, but Southgate admits the incident was disappointing.

“It’s not something on behalf of our black players that I wanted to hear, because it feels as though it’s a criticism of them,” he said. “We seem to have got a situation where some people feel it is a political stand that they don’t agree with – that’s not the reason the players are doing it, we’re supporting each other.

“I was pleased that was drowned out by the majority of the crowd, but we can’t deny the fact that it happened. I think the most important thing for our players to know is that all their team-mates and all the staff are fully supportive.

“I think the majority of people understand it. I think some people aren’t quite understanding the message, and I suppose we’re seeing that."