COLE CAN LIGHT A FIRE UNDER ENGLAND

Laid back, inventive, fresh and a goal threat... only Southgate's blind loyalty to Saka can prevent Palmer starting for struggling Three Lions on Sunday

- ANDY DUNN

COLE PALMER is a shy, quiet lad but one of his shrugs speaks a thousand words.

Asked whether or not he was nervous ahead of his tournament debut, there was a quick flick of the shoulders and a 'nah'.

This 20-year-old really is ice cool.

And after the impact he made in his 23 minutes in Cologne, Palmer should be a stone-cold in certainty to start Gelsenkirchen on Sunday.

Surely only blind loyalty to a player who has served Gareth Southgate so well can prevent Palmer from making the line-up in the last 16?

But the England coach has to accept that Bukayo Saka has gone quite seriously off the boil and Palmer is a player who can, quite simply, make things happen.

Palmer is fresh, having not started a football match in almost three weeks.

Palmer is inventive with both feet and, having been educated at the Pep school of passing, can split open a defence with one short stroke of the boot.