Published 10:34 IST, November 13th 2019

Sterling sanction casts shadow as England aim to seal place at Euro 2020

England's plan to celebrate their 1,000th international by qualifying for Euro 2020 in serene style at Wembley has been ripped up by the call to drop Sterling

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England's plan to celebrate ir 1,000th international by qualifying for Euro 2020 in serene style against Montenegro at Wembley on Thursday has been ripped up by Gareth Southgate's decision to drop Raheem Sterling. Manchester City winger was involved in a physical confrontation with Liverpool defender Joe Gomez at England's training base on Monday as emotions spilled over from highly-anticipated Premier League clash between two clubs on Sunday. Sterling has been star of a qualifying campaign dominated by off-field issues where Three Lions have largely let ir football do talking on it.

Bar a shock defeat to Czech Republic last month, World Cup semi-finalists have shown why y will be among favourites to win a first major tournament in 54 years next summer. Sterling has scored eight of his side's 26 goals in six games as he has blossomed into one of world's best players for club and country since failing to find his best form at World Cup 18 months ago. He has also been a leing figure as England have stood up to racist abuse suffered by a number of players in Montenegro and Bulgaria.

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One of Southgate's strengths since taking charge three years ago has been to foster a unity in camp, far removed from club-aligned cliques that hampered chances of talented England sides of past. That w faces its biggest test as bubbling rivalry between Liverpool and City threatens to spill over. Southgate's first instinct was reportedly to send Sterling home, but intervention of senior players, principally Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson, helped ease feud and 24-year-old has remained with squ to train.

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"I always have to find right solution for group and that's a very difficult line," said Southgate on Tuesday.

"We have a very good understanding of way that we have worked over last couple of years, which has brought us a lot of togerness that is still re.

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"We are a united group. w we have to turn our focus onto football. We have a hugely important qualifier to reach a European Championship."

Sterling has since apologised to Gomez and rest of squ. "I am man eugh to mit when emotions got better of me," he said in an Instagram post.

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"Me and Joe Gomez are good, we both understand it was a five to 10-second thing... it's done, we move forward and t make this bigger than it is."

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Sterling could even return to action as soon as Sunday when Southgate's men travel to Kosovo. England will hope re is thing riding on that match for m as a point against side ranked 61st in world on Thursday will be eugh to guarantee qualification. Even in Sterling's absence, Southgate is blessed with an array of attacking talent including Harry Kane, Jon Sancho and Marcus Rashford that should continue England's free-scoring form.

But Southgate's action has been criticised by some for bringing a private incident into public eye and putting Sterling under more scrutiny as a result. "Why this couldn't be handled internally?" said former England defender Rio Ferdinand. "w Raheem is left to defend himself from all of haters that h h ir keyboards turned off due to him becoming a very worthy ambassor for English game."

If England's long wait to win a major tournament is to come to an end, Southgate needs to continue getting best out of Sterling. question remains what lasting impact developments of last two days will have on ir relationship going forward. 

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10:29 IST, November 13th 2019