Kyle Walker withdraws from England duty with injury

Kyle Walker will miss out on the chance to impress England manager Roy Hodgson and add to his five caps after an injury forced him to withdraw from the squad for England's upcoming friendlies against Ireland and Brazil.

Walker picked up a knock after a robust challenge during Spurs' meaningless post-season exhibition against Jamaica last Thursday. And this is why you don't fly across the world to play a meaningless exhibition a week after a long and rigorous season at the whims of your sugar-daddy-in-exile.

The England medical team assessed the injury, but no information has been released letting us know how serious it actually is. Hopefully this is mostly precautionary and will give Walker a much-needed rest after he played more minutes last season than any Spurs player.

I really don't want to think about the alternative.