Robert Lewandowski has been ruled out of England’s crunch World Cup qualifier at Wembley.
That will be a huge boost for England boss Gareth Southgate who insists the showdown with Poland could be their most important fixture in Group I and has told his players to “make it count.”
Bayern Munich superstar Lewandowski will miss out after limping out of his team’s win over Andorra on Sunday night, had a fitness test yesterday and was then sent back to his club to recover.
England have won their opening two fixtures and Poland is the biggest obstacle to automatic qualification as only the Group winners get a guaranteed passport to Qatar.
It was being billed as a shoot-out between Lewandowski and England captain Harry Kane and the Polish FA are now facing criticism for allowing their record goalscorer to play against World Cup minnows Andorra.
Poland FA chairman Zbigniew Boniek hit back on social media: “Lewandowski wouldn’t have broken any goalscoring record without playing against pot 5/6 teams. An in-form player wants and has the right to play.
“An injury can be picked in the training, match, or walking out of a lift. Without Robert you also have to play and the team will cope.”
But Southgate knows this is now a bigger chance to take a huge step towards the World Cup finals in Qatar next year by making it three straight wins.
Southgate added: “It is a key game in the group.We have given ourselves an opportunity that if we can beat Poland at home, we are in a really strong position already. We have to make sure we can make that count.
“I am not looking at any game we play as a must-not lose. We go out to try and win every game and find a way to win. I don’t think the team would want to go into the game with that mindset.
“It is a good opportunity to really control the Group and go into the final game before we name the squad in a really good frame of mind.”
