'I have fractured it' - Man City star John Stones' injury confession before England vs Serbia

John Stones has admitted he was worried that he broke his foot during England's final Euro 2024 warm-up game and would be ruled out of the tournament.

The Manchester City defender suffered an injury scare in the 1-0 defeat against Iceland at Wembley last Friday. He was forced to be substituted at half-time after suffering a heavy knock early on.

Stones feared the worse and thought he had sustained a fracture, but scans revealed there was no significant damage and he returned to training earlier this week. Having also recovered from illness, Stones is expected to start for England against Serbia in their opening Euro 2024 match on Sunday.

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"I was worried at first, just the mechanism of how it happened, how I landed on my foot," Stones said. "I knew it wasn't my knee or my ankle, because of the mechanism in how I landed. 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.

"I thought if I have fractured it, get the doctors, tablets, injections, whatever it is, I don't want to miss out – which 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."

If Stones gets the nod against Serbia, it would be his first competitive start since April 6, when he played in City's 4-2 victory over Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park.

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