England players insist on giving World Cup medal to player not in the squad

Jordan Henderson gave Jason Steele a World Cup medal after England’s win over France (Shutterstock)

England

sealed a 6-4 win over France in a thrilling

World Cup

third-place match on Saturday and

Thomas Tuchel

’s players showed their squad harmony during the medal ceremony.

Declan Rice

got England off to the perfect start in Miami as he opened the scoring in the third minute before

Ezri Konsa

doubled the Three Lions’ lead in the 18th minute.

Bukayo Saka

then struck twice to put England 4-0 up by the half-time break, however, another second-half collapse appeared to be on the cards as two goals from

Kylian Mbappe

and a strike from Bradley Barcola put France back in the game.

Saka then completed his hat-trick from the penalty spot to give England a two-goal cushion before Ousmane Dembele struck to provide France with a glimmer of hope in injury time.

But

Jude Bellingham

, who started the game as a substitute, scored a brilliant individual effort to complete England’s 6-4 victory, which secured a World Cup bronze medal.

England’s players called over Jason Steele to collect his World Cup medal (Reuters)

Jason Steele was not part of England’s 26-man World Cup squad (PA Wire)

During the ceremony after the game, England’s players all collected their medals on stage but before posing for the team photograph, Harry Kane and Jordan Henderson called over reserve goalkeeper Jason Steele to ensure that he also was given a medal.

Steele was not named in England’s 26-man World Cup squad but the 35-year-old Brighton goalkeeper travelled with the team to play a part in training.

Jason Steele plays for Brighton in the Premier League (Reuters)

Jason Steele has been part of England’s training sessions during the World Cup (Getty)

‘We chose three goalkeepers plus Jason Steele,’ Tuchel said after unveiling his World Cup squad in May.

‘I want to take the opportunity to thank Jason for being brilliant and thank Brighton for being so co-operative and supportive.’

In March, Steele received his first call-up to the England senior squad for the friendlies against Uruguay and Japan but did not play.

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