{"id":504050,"date":"2026-03-30T20:57:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T20:57:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/504050\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T20:57:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T20:57:07","slug":"thomas-tuchel-has-100-trust-in-rice-and-saka-over-england-injury-absences-england","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/504050\/","title":{"rendered":"Thomas Tuchel has \u2018100% trust\u2019 in Rice and Saka over England injury absences | England"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thomas Tuchel has plotted a diplomatic course through the storm that has followed the withdrawals of Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka<\/a> from the England squad, saying the optics may look bad but he has \u201c100% trust\u201d in their integrity.<\/p>\n

The England head coach gave Rice and Saka last week off, letting them rest rather than play in the 1-1 draw against Uruguay<\/a> at Wembley on Friday \u2013 along with nine others. His idea was to have all 11 back for the game against Japan on Tuesday, also at Wembley, for which he would release a group of players.<\/p>\n

Rice and Saka did report, the former working on the grass in training on Saturday, the latter in the gym. But Tuchel said they continued to feel discomfort after their involvement with Arsenal in the Carabao Cup final<\/a> against Manchester City on the Sunday before last and, as such, had to stand down.<\/p>\n

A host of other Arsenal players have either been unavailable for their countries during the international window with pre-existing injuries or withdrew shortly after their call-ups. Jurri\u00ebn Timber, Martin \u00d8degaard and Eberechi Eze were in the first category; William Saliba, Gabriel Magalh\u00e3es and Leandro Trossard in the latter. Piero Hincapi\u00e9, Mart\u00edn Zubimendi and Noni Madueke have gone home after playing some part in the matches. Madueke was injured for England<\/a> against Uruguay. Arsenal lost the Carabao Cup final but are pushing for a Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup treble.<\/p>\n

Noni Madueke was injured in the draw with Uruguay, one of several Arsenal players to withdraw from international duty. Photograph: Andrew Couldridge\/Action Images\/Reuters<\/p>\n

\u201cI understand the looks of it,\u201d Tuchel said when asked about the withdrawals of Rice and Saka. \u201cI still have 100% trust in the honesty of Declan and Bukayo. We did medical tests. I saw them. I have no reason to believe that either are not honest with me. But given the amount of Arsenal players, I understand the look.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew after the [Carabao Cup] final that there are issues. They were in treatment. But they both came. Declan was even out on the pitch. He did not come and say: \u2018Guys, I\u2019m going home.\u2019 I heard there were camps where players did not even show up with boots. Bukayo did sessions in the gym to really try. Declan had a session on the pitch with Jude [Bellingham, who is also not fully fit] and said it doesn\u2019t feel right. Why would I take any risks?<\/p>\n

\u201cThey wanted desperately to be involved \u2013 just to get the narrative straight. But they were both clearly in discomfort.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tuchel did not offer specifics about the issues affecting Rice and Saka, saying Arsenal would \u201cnot be happy\u201d if he did so. He said: \u201cDeclan feels a discomfort since quite a while and he\u2019s playing through it. He\u2019s just now on the edge where he thinks: \u2018Does this make sense, what I\u2019m doing here, to push through with 70% and push myself and push myself?\u2019 The same with Bukayo.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tuchel reported that scans on Madueke\u2019s knee were \u201cslightly better than his feeling but he will be out for some days\u201d. Bellingham will play no part against Japan<\/a> as he works his way back from a hamstring injury, while Jordan Henderson followed an individual programme indoors on Monday and is unlikely to feature.<\/p>\n

Zubimendi\u2019s withdrawal from the Spain squad came after he played the final 13 minutes of their 3-0 win against Serbia on Friday and felt knee pain. The Spanish Football Federation said the decision was made \u201cto avoid any risk and protect the player\u2019s health\u201d.<\/p>\n

Tuchel is worried about the remorseless nature of the schedule for Premier League clubs and how it will affect his players for the World Cup. \u201cIt is a threat [to England\u2019s hopes],\u201d he said. \u201cNot the biggest one but it is a threat. Fatigue is just a fact. That\u2019s why we did this camp as we have done \u2013 to give the ones who were heavily involved a break. I\u2019m 100% convinced we will get the benefit from it \u2013 now against Japan and later.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thomas Tuchel has plotted a diplomatic course through the storm that has followed the withdrawals of Declan Rice…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":504051,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[59,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-504050","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-gb","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=504050"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504050\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/504051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=504050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=504050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=504050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}