England have received a huge boost ahead of Euro 2024 as one crucial player has stepped up his recovery from injury just under two weeks before the tournament kicks off.
That man is Luke Shaw, the talented defender who is the only natural left-back named in Southgate's 33-man preliminary squad.
The Manchester United ace has been out of action since February due to a hamstring issue and was forced to watch his team's last game of the season — their 2-1 win over Manchester City in the FA Cup final — from the stands.
However, as revealed by the Telegraph, the 28-year-old has made significant progress in his recovery. The Englishman has finally returned to the grass and began partly training with the rest of the squad this week.
The next step will hopefully be a reintegration into the full team training but given his lengthy absence, England will approach this cautiously.
As stated in the report, Kieran Trippier will start Euro 2024 as the Three Lions' left-back irrespective of whether Shaw returns in time to make the final squad or not.
Nonetheless, Shaw is the only natural left-back in Southgate's provisional squad and should return to the lineup once fit and back to his best. Liverpool's Joe Gomez is another option for the Euro 2020 runners-up.
England kick off their Euro 2024 campaign on June 16 against Serbia. Southgate has so far named a 33-man preliminary squad but will have to narrow that to a final 26-man team on Friday.
This decision will be submitted to UEFA an hour after England friendly against Iceland at Wembley, their final friendly before jetting off to Germany for this summer's European Championship.
