Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain ruled out of England game against Uruguay

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain will miss the clash against Urguay in England’s second group game on Thursday, with Roy Hodgson admitting the game has come too soon for him.

Chamberlain suffered a medial knee ligament injury in the World Cup warm-up against Ecuador two weeks ago. The Arsenal man was involved in a strange incident where he fell over and stuck his foot into the ground, thus seemingly injuring his knee.

He was ruled out for 10-21 days almost instantly after and he seemed set to miss out on the tournament. However, he has made good progress and recently returned to training for the Three Lions.

Chamberlain has been troubled by injuries all season and he only regained fitness towards the back-end of the season. Hodgson believes the pacey winger will most likely be fit for the last group game against Costa Rice, admitting the Uruguay game has come too soon.

Hodgson told reporters: “He’s not in contention for Uruguay but he will take part in the next full training session.

“At the limit, we could have taken a chance with him but it’ll be better to use the four days before the Costa Rica game to train with the team.

“His injury has responded very well to treatment and I don’t think we’ll put him into the firing line before he has some training sessions with the team.”Chamberlain scored two goals in 14 Premier League appearances last season.