Yahoo Sport 
Jadon Sancho is outplaying Raheem Sterling and Marcus Rashford - he can be England's joker in the pack
Before the start of the last Bundesliga season, Jadon Sancho's England prospects were swathed in uncertainty.
In those “pre-season” Uefa Nations League matches in September, crowbarred into the calendar to cope with football’s closure for the Covid-19 pandemic, Sancho was substituted having disappointed against Iceland and Denmark. As Chris Waddle pointed out while working as a pundit for the BBC, Sancho had lost the confidence to take on his full-back and would rather turn around and look for a team-mate.
Gareth Southgate started him only once during the season, a victory over the Republic of Ireland as part of an experimental line-up which also included Harry Winks, Michael Keane, Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Tammy Abraham.
Fast forward a few months, however, and Sancho could be emerging as the joker in England's attacking pack ahead of the European Championships. The 21 year-old may have missed training on Tuesday through illness, but he has positioned himself nicely to earn a shot at a starting place.
Mason Greenwood’s injury has ruled him out of the tournament and means one less player competing for a place as one of England’s wide forwards. Raheem Sterling and Marcus Rashford, meanwhile, will miss the friendlies at the Riverside as their seasons were extended for the Champions League and Europa League finals.
But even had they been available, Sancho should be ahead of them both based purely on form. Sterling lost his place as a Manchester City regular in March and his reprieve against Chelsea at the weekend backfired. Rashford, by his own admission, has struggled this season and puts his slump down to injuries, which he is still managing.
Sancho, on the other hand, goes into the Euros as Southgate’s in-form winger, after having a season that nobody expected at Borussia Dortmund - not least given it came on the back of the disappointment of his move to Manchester United collapsing. Dortmund would not move from their £108 million asking price and the British record fee was never met.
It would be safe to suggest there were concerns about how Sancho might react to the situation, given some of the previous disciplinary issues he had faced. He was fined and dropped for being late back from international duty. Lucien Favre, while Dortmund manager, also subbed him in the first half of a defeat by Bayern Munich and he was accused of not being focused when his team played Barcelona in the Champions League.
Michael Zorc, the club’s sporting director, was moved to deny Sancho’s calf injury was a cover-up when football restarted after the coronavirus pandemic and there were accusations of breaking lockdown rules. He was fined, however, by German football authorities for a rogue haircut.
Sancho’s form has been close to the 2019-20 season when he finished with 17 goals and 16 assists. Given he had a spell out injured in the second half of the season, his return is a comparable eight goals and 11 assists from his 26 appearances.
Edin Terzić, the interim Dortmund head coach, brought him back from injury gradually in April, starting with 30 minutes off the bench, then an hour, then into his best form of the season meaning he is peaking going into the Euros. He scored twice against RB Leipzig in two games, once to confirm Bayern Munich as champions and the other to win the German Cup.
It will not only be Harry Kane who has a transfer saga as a sideshow to the Euros, as United still want Sancho as their primary wide forward target. Bayern have admired him this season but are well stocked in that area at the moment. If this season is anything to go by, it should not affect him.
