June 2021

England duo Mason Mount and Ben Chilwell will miss Tuesday's Euro 2020 clash with the Czech Republic after going into self-isolation.

The pair interacted with Scotland midfielder Billy Gilmour, who has tested positive for coronavirus, at full-time of Friday's 0-0 draw.

"[Mount and Chilwell] must isolate up to and including next Monday, June 28. The decision has been taken in consultation with Public Health England," an FA statement read on Tuesday.

"The entire England squad and staff had lateral flow tests on Monday and all were again negative, as was the case with Sunday's UEFA pre-match PCR tests.

"Mount and Chilwell will isolate and train individually in private areas at England's training base St George's Park, with the rest of the squad returning there after tonight's fixture against Czech Republic at Wembley.

"Further tests will be carried out as and when appropriate."

Mount and Chilwell embraced and spoke to Gilmour on the pitch, and also spent 25 minutes with their Chelsea team-mate in the tunnel afterwards, before he went on to return a positive test on Monday.

The pair could potentially miss England's first Euro 2020 knockout game depending on the outcome of tonight's final Group D matches.

If England top the group, they will play the second-placed team in Group F (Portugal, France, Germany or Hungary) at Wembley on Tuesday June 29.

But if Gareth Southgate's side are runners-up in Group D, they will play the runners-up of Group E (Spain, Sweden, Poland, Slovakia) on Monday June 28 - meaning Mount and Chilwell will be unavailable.

If England finish as one of four best third-placed teams, a situation which would require them to lose to Czech Republic and for Scotland to beat Croatia by a significant margin, they will play either the winners of Group C or Group B on Sunday, or the winners of Group E on Tuesday.

Why are Scotland players not isolating?

The Scottish FA and Public Health England have held discussions since Monday morning's announcement, and both are satisfied that there are no close contact issues to consider within the Scotland squad relating to Gilmour.

All 25 players that flew to Glasgow on Monday are available for selection when they face Croatia in their must-win final group game at Hampden Park on Tuesday night.

Gilmour is isolating for 10 days at the Rockcliffe Hotel, at Scotland's training base in Darlington, and will not be available for the last-16 game if Scotland progress to the knockout stage.

The SFA is aware of a video posted by Andy Robertson on Instagram over the weekend which features Gilmour playing table tennis, and has since been deleted.

Sources told Sky Sports News that they accept the optics around that video are not ideal, however PHE and SFA health officials are happy that the time Gilmour spent in close proximity to his team-mates in that environment did not breach COVID-19 guidelines.

SFA inquiries into how Gilmour contracted COVID-19 are ongoing and led by Scottish team doctor Dr John MacLean, who has worked with the squad since before the 1998 World Cup and has recent experience of dealing with COVID cases within the Scotland squad.

John Fleck tested positive during the pre-tournament training camp in Spain while Stuart Armstrong tested positive last autumn, when Kieran Tierney and Ryan Christie were forced to isolate

Analysis: Time for a back three?
Sky Sports News reporter Kaveh Solhekol...

Southgate was asked about the fact that the team looked tired on Friday, and he made the point that the starting XI were in perfect physical condition, which sounded like he wants to give them another chance.

Henderson and Maguire will definitely play, and Maguire is really pushing for a start ahead of Tyrone Mings. Going into such a massive game next week, you can't have a situation where Henderson and Maguire haven't had some game time.

There won't be wholesale changes, it's not a case that they're through to the next round and he's going to do what Roberto Mancini did with Italy the other day. The performance on Friday was so disappointing, one of the worst under his tenure, and he wants to give a lot of those same players a chance to make up for it.

It could be time for Southgate to revert to a back three, which is the same system he used in all the games at the World Cup in Russia, now that he has all three of those centre-backs available again - Walker, Stones and Maguire. That would be a way of getting Jack Grealish in the side, and ditching those two holding midfielders.

But, if it's another 4-2-3-1, I can't see how Grealish can play. Southgate was only able to pick his team once he had the clarification from Public Health England around Mount and Chilwell's availability, so it's a really unusual situation because in normal circumstances, the players would know the team the day before a game.

Mount was always going to start under Southgate, and the noises coming out of the England camp is that Bellingham - still 17 years old - is in contention to replace him. That would be a massive call, Southgate has been really impressed by him in training and his maturity around the camp, so he wouldn't have any problems starting him.