{"id":1074843,"date":"2026-07-07T20:50:46","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T20:50:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1074843\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T20:50:46","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T20:50:46","slug":"norway-team-struck-by-illness-in-days-before-england-world-cup-quarter-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1074843\/","title":{"rendered":"Norway team struck by illness in days before England World Cup quarter-final"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Norway<\/a>\u2019s coach has said that some of his players are suffering from illness ahead of Saturday\u2019s World Cup <\/a>quarter-final with England<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, Norway knocked out five-time champions Brazil<\/a> in a 2-1 win, with Neymar\u2019s late penalty proving nothing but a consolation after Erling Haaland\u2019s fine double<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Hours later, England overcame Mexico in Mexico City<\/a> in a 3-2 thriller, with a Jude Bellingham brace<\/a> and Harry Kane penalty guiding the Three Lions into the last eight.<\/p>\n

\"NorwayNorway players in training ahead of their last-32 game (Getty)<\/p>\n

There, Norway await in Miami on Saturday, but Stale Solbakken\u2019s team may not be at full fitness for that clash.<\/p>\n

Solbakken told the media on Tuesday that some of his squad had been struggling with illness, although he did say they were recovering.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had a few players who haven\u2019t been feeling well, but things are getting better,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not ideal during a tournament, but we\u2019re managing the situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Norwegian publication Dagbladet<\/a> reported that striker Jorgen Strand Larsen<\/a> was one of the players affected, as well as defender Marcus Holmgren Pedersen, who missed the Brazil tie due to sickness.<\/p>\n

Crystal Palace\u2019s Strand Larsen actually missed Norway\u2019s opening game at the World Cup, a 4-1 win over Iraq, due to illness, while Pedersen has been struck by a cough and struggled with tiredness this week, according to Solbakken.<\/p>\n

Solbakken also suggested that assistant coach Kent Bergersen had been unwell in recent days.<\/p>\n

Norway\u2019s opening victory over Iraq gave way to a 3-2 win against Senegal and a 4-1 loss to France, although Solbakken made 10 changes to his starting line-up for that clash with the tournament favourites.<\/p>\n

\"NorwayNorway and Crystal Palace striker Jorgen Strand Larsen (Getty)<\/p>\n

Norway then saw off Ivory Coast 2-1 in the last 32 and Brazil in the last 16 to set up their showdown with England, who will be without Jarell Quansah after the right back was shown a straight red card against Mexico.<\/p>\n

England have considered appealing Quansah\u2019s one-game ban<\/a>, however, after a stunning episode involving USA striker Folarin Balogun. <\/p>\n

The forward was sent off during USA\u2019s last-32 win over Bosnia and Herzegovina, but his one-game ban was suspended after US president Donald Trump phoned Fifa chief Gianni Infantino<\/a>. USA nevertheless lost 4-1 to Belgium in the last 16 on Monday.<\/p>\n

England will also be without Jordan Henderson, who injured his wrist after falling over an advertising board<\/a> while celebrating the win over Mexico. However, the veteran midfielder was actually an unused substitute in that tie, and has not played much at all during the competition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1074844,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5008],"tags":[2106,287383,291881,748,47671,114209,260581,393,1512,19560,75473,4884,44888,252298,15195,47681,114212,59502,6149,1115,294408,283377,2249,10031,93,30364,16,15,659,294497,255559],"class_list":["post-1074843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-england","tag-brazil","tag-brazil-national-soccer-team","tag-brazil-national-team","tag-britain","tag-color-image","tag-east-rutherford","tag-eight-finals","tag-england","tag-fifa","tag-fifa-world-cup","tag-fifa-world-cup-2026","tag-great-britain","tag-horizontal","tag-international-team-soccer","tag-jorgen-strand-larsen","tag-match-sport","tag-metlife-stadium","tag-national-team","tag-new-jersey","tag-norway","tag-norway-national-soccer-team","tag-number-11","tag-photography","tag-soccer","tag-sport","tag-stadium","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-usa","tag-warm-up-exercise","tag-world-sports-championship"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1074843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1074843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1074843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1074844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1074843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1074843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1074843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}