U-17 World Cup: Sancho trains with England team ahead of pre-quarters

Kolkata, Oct 15 (IANS)   England's attacking midfielder Jadon Sancho on Sunday trained with the team ahead of their pre-quarterfinal clash against Japan, fuelling speculation on whether the Borussia Dortmund prodigy will be available for selection on Tuesday here or not.

"The team today trained in two groups and Sancho was in one of them," England media officer Amy Hart told IANS when quizzed about the winger who has so far scored three goals in the tournament and has been influential for the 'Young Lions'.

"There is no update on him yet. When there is, we will let everybody know," Hart added. 

Sancho was only allowed to attend the tournament on condition that he would return to his club after the group stages.

However, according to a report by The Sun recently, the FA and England bigwigs tried to persuade Dortmund bosses to change their stance and let the 17-year-old stay to hopefully fire them to World Cup glory.

Sancho, who was handed Ousmane Dembele's No.7 upon his arrival in Dortmund from Manchester City, was an unused sub during the recent 2-1 win over Augsburg.

Coach Steve Cooper's colts remained unbeaten after the group stages winning against Mexico, Chile and Iraq in Group F. 

They scored as many as 11 goals and conceded just two leading to talks of them being one of the favourites to win the title along with France and Brazil.