At the beginning of last season, Harry Maguire found himself sidelined at Old Trafford, slipping down the pecking order to become the fourth or even fifth choice center-back.
He was on the verge of securing a £30 million summer transfer to West Ham, but the deal fell through due to failure in reaching an agreement over a pay-off from Manchester United.
Additionally, the 30-year-old was stripped of his captaincy at United due to his lack of regular playing time and began the new season behind Raphael Varane, Lisandro Martinez, and Victor Lindelof.
Despite this, Maguire was still included in Gareth Southgate’s England squad announced in late August.
In the Euro 2024 qualifier against Ukraine, Maguire played the full 90 minutes alongside the impressive Marc Guehi.
England is scheduled to face Scotland in a friendly on Tuesday, followed by matches against Australia, Italy, Malta, and North Macedonia later in 2023.
Regarding Maguire’s performance, Southgate commented, “He’s a very experienced player, and he’s looked very good in training.
Harry knows where our support is. He knows he has to keep playing well for us, and I think over the next few weeks, given what’s happening with their squad with injuries, he may well have a lot more minutes for [Manchester United] as well.”
United faced setbacks with Varane sustaining an injury during a recent match against Nottingham Forest. Martinez was also substituted early in the game against Arsenal and missed Argentina’s World Cup qualifier against Ecuador.
Lindelof was withdrawn from the Arsenal match due to illness, while Luke Shaw has been absent as well; he occasionally filled in as a center-back last season.
As a result of these setbacks, Maguire found himself partnering with Jonny Evans towards the end of the Arsenal defeat, rekindling their former partnership from their time together at Leicester during the 2018/19 season.
