The Manchester City star admits to fearing a dreaded break ahead of Euro 2024

A broken leg was feared ahead of a full diagnosis on an injury sustained by John Stones on the eve of this summer’s European Championships.

The Manchester City defender was withdrawn after 45 minutes against Iceland in England’s final warm-up game ahead of the tournament in Germany last week, with concerns over a first-half injury appearing to put his fate in jeopardy.

However, having sufficiently recovered from injury, the 30-year-old would have suffered another setback as the former Everton player was restricted to his own rooms during England’s first few days at their training base from Germany due to illness.

It would prove to be the last of Stones’ pre-tournament problems, however the versatile defender has now admitted the extent of the scare which could have ended his hopes of contributing at the highest level after a personally challenging campaign.

Speaking to the media ahead of England’s opening match of this summer’s European Championship campaign, John Stones revealed how he feared the worst after picking up an injury in the nation’s final pre-tournament warm-up game.

“I was worried at first, just the mechanics of how it happened, how I landed on my foot,” Stones said of the problem suffered in last week’s 1-0 defeat to Iceland. “I knew it wasn’t my knee or my ankle because of the mechanism I landed in.”

He continued: “It was almost like a big toe in a direct line along my leg and you think, ‘I’ve fractured it.’ You think it was the worst at first and I got a few scans back and (they were) really minor stuff and I got through it, which is great.”

However, no injury was going to stop Stones fighting to make the plane to Germany, the Manchester City defender insisted. “I thought if I fractured it, I’m taking doctors, tablets, shots, whatever, I don’t want to miss it.

“I think with my injury history and knowing how to deal with it mentally and being in a positive frame of mind about it, it’s really beneficial. If it was bad, I was ready to go, and happily it wasn’t.”

John Stones is expected to start alongside Crystal Palace’s Marc Guehi for the tour this summer, with Harry Maguire left out of Gareth Southgate’s squad due to a lack of match fitness and time to recover from a muscle injury.

Despite their relative inexperience working alongside each other at senior international level, Stones spoke highly of the Crystal Palace centre-back and believes his qualities can complement Guehi’s.

England take on Serbia in their opening European Championship group stage match on Sunday evening, hoping to get a strong result against Slovenia and Denmark in their other two fixtures.