Gareth Southgate hails 'elite' Bukayo Saka for scoring England hat trick with Achilles injury

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Gareth Southgate hails 'elite' Bukayo Saka for scoring England hat trick with Achilles injury

England manager Gareth Southgate has heaped praise on Bukayo Saka after the Arsenal star scored his first ever hat trick for the Three Lions.

Saka was in stunning form on Monday night for England, bagging a hat trick in his side's impressively thorough trouncing of a decent North Macedonia side - with Harry Kane, Kalvin Phillips and Marcus Rashford getting the rest of the goals in the 7-0 win.

Speaking to the press after the game, Southgate revealed that Saka scored three goals despite having a slight Achilles injury.

“I am delighted for him. He’s had a slightly sore Achilles - for a few weeks - and it's another one where it would have been easy to pull out of the camp and miss out on a night like this that I'm sure will live with him forever.

"When you have one of the best nights of your life it's a reminder to everyone to go through these things."

When asked if Saka can become an 'elite' player, Southgate replied: "I think he is already there. He broke into a team [Arsenal] having a difficult time and performing at a high level, then when the team was playing well he’s still performing. That says everything. He’s exceptional to work with.

"For [all of] the players to have the mentality they have to work, at the late stage of this monster of all seasons, there was every excuse to do that and they’ve not done that."