A round-up of how Everton players fared on international duty
Jordan Pickford receives medical treatment for an injury during the World Cup qualifying match between England and Serbia at Wembley on November 13, 2025(Image: Crystal Pix/MB Media/Getty Images)
Everton will be hoping that Jordan Pickford’s injury playing for England is not serious ahead of their trip to Manchester United as the goalkeeper extended his clean sheets record to a ‘perfect 10’ on international duty.
Pickford has played in the last 118 consecutive Premier League matches and is currently just three games away from eclipsing his own record set between August 12, 2017 and October 25, 2020, when first joining the Blues, which is the fifth lengthiest spell in Blues’ history. However, Evertonians’ hearts will have been in their mouths on Thursday night when ITV cameras panned to show the 31-year-old down on the Wembley turf, pointing at his thigh.
Thankfully, after undergoing treatment, Pickford was able to continue and kept a 10th consecutive clean sheet for the Three Lions, who having already become the first European nation to qualify for next summer’s World Cup finals with a 5-0 win in Latvia last time out, defeated Serbia 2-0 with goals from Arsenal pair Bukayo Saka (28) and Eberechi Eze (90). The Everton ace had already broken World Cup winner Gordon Banks’ 59-year-old record for consecutive clean sheets with England with his eighth straight shut-out in the 3-0 friendly victory over Wales on October 9 but his latest display extends the sequence into double figures.
Manager Thomas Tuchel could decide to rest Pickford for their final qualifier against Albania on Sunday if he is carrying a knock as the result at Wembley ensures Serbia cannot reach the play-offs by finishing second in the group. England had already qualified before Thursday’s game, but their win ensures the final match in Tirana is now a dead rubber in terms of placings.
OPINION
Doubts were suggested at the time as to whether Pickford was really hurt or not though with Henry Winter commenting on X (formerly Twitter): “Jordan Pickford. Thigh issue or tactical timeout?”
Lee Dixon, whose remarks during the game in Riga last month questioning why Pickford hadn’t joined a “bigger club” prompted Everton to issue their own online response, seemed baffled by the incident. Commenting alongside Sam Matterface on ITV, the former England international right-back said: “That was a weird one, the goalkeeper goes down because he doesn’t need any tactics, and the rest of them go and talk to Thomas?”
Everton pair Seamus Coleman and Jake O’Brien also enjoyed a 2-0 win on international duty as Troy Parrott’s first half brace saw the Republic of Ireland sink former Blues boss Roberto Martinez’s Portugal at Dublin’s Aviva Stadium. The Hill Dickinson Stadium duo both played the full 90 minutes in a back five with Coleman at right-back and O’Brien in the favoured centre-back role where he has only featured fleetingly under David Moyes.
It was a frustrating night for the visitors, who were beaten despite having 14 shots to six and 72% of possession and their 40-year-old captain Cristiano Ronaldo was sent off for the first time on international duty on his 226th appearance just after the hour mark for lashing out at Dara O’Shea. The result keeps Irish hopes of qualifying alive, although they must defeat Hungary in Budapest on Sunday to leapfrog them into second spot to secure a play-off place.
Meanwhile, Everton left-back Vitalii Mykolenko was kept on the bench as an unused substitute for Ukraine in their 4-0 World Cup qualifying defeat to France at Parc des Princes in Paris. The result saw France clinch qualification and leaves Ukraine level on seven points with Iceland with the two nations facing each other in their final group game in Warsaw on Sunday.
