JACK GREALISH says all of England’s fab five are desperate to start against Senegal – but the two that do will rally round the three that do not.
Gareth Southgate has a serious headache – albeit a luxury one – over which two widemen to pick against the Lions of Teranga.
Marcus Rashford and Phil Foden look in the box seat after netting against Wales, but Raheem Sterling, Bukayo Saka and Grealish are pushing hard too.
The quintet have all netted at the World Cup too, making Southgate’s selection dilemma for Sunday’s last-16 clash even tougher.
Speaking on the Lions’ Den on the FA’s YouTube channel, Grealish said: “It’s going to be one of those games you’ll be desperate to play in.
“It’s obviously difficult for the manager because he can only pick 11 players. I’m sure everyone is going to want to play in it.
“But no matter who he picks we’ll all be supporting each other.
“Because that’s one thing we have here, we have massive togetherness. I’m looking forward to it, it’s going to be a massive occasion.”
Grealish netted in the opening-game 6-2 thrashing of Iran – a moment he labelled the best of his England career so far.
The man signed by Manchester City from Aston Villa for £100million has come in each of the Three Lions’ group games.
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He is loving life on football’s biggest stage, which is a far cry from the Highgate United pitch, based in Solihull, that he used to play on under another name as a nipper in the Villa academy.
Grealish explained: “I was at Highgate when I was like four or five. Then I went there when I was a bit older, like 10, 11, 12.
“Villa would never let me play in these tournaments but sometimes I would sneakily play in them. Just because it was football.
“[I would play under the name] Jack Greaves. That was my dad’s idea, though. That weren’t mine.
“Back in the day there was no social media, so no one was like ‘that’s Jack Grealish the 10-year-old from Villa’ would they. I wasn’t a big hitter back then!”
England copped flak for their bore draw against USA in the second group game.
But no nation won all three of their group matches and Grealish feels the team should be praised more for being tournament top-scorers.
The 27-year-old added: “We’re the top goalscorers, no one has scored more than us.
“We’ve only conceded two goals, one being a penalty. It weren’t a penalty either.
“I think we deserve a bit of credit going into these knockout games.”
