Southgate: We are asked to navigate complex political aspects that I am not really trained to do

The season is less than a month old yet England manager Gareth Southgate cut a strangely fatigued figure as he announced his first squad of 2023-24 at St George’s Park.

He certainly has plenty on his plate right now.

Before a European Championship qualifier away to Ukraine next Saturday (September 9), to be played in Poland because of the Russian invasion, and a friendly against Scotland in Glasgow three days later, Southgate is dealing with an injury crisis in defence and a lack of game time at club level for some of the 26 players he selected.

He also had to field questions about misogyny in football, Mason Greenwood’s international future, whether England women’s counterpart Sarina Wiegman could manage in the men’s game, the decision to backtrack over wearing the OneLove armband in support of the LGBTQI+ community at the World Cup last year in Qatar, and the decision by one of his senior players, Jordan Henderson, to swap the Premier League this summer for the Saudi Pro League.

At one stage as he faced the media on Thursday afternoon, Southgate seemed to be looking down, searching for some inspiration as the questions about everything but the two games of football kept…