At a Glance:
- Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka have withdrawn from the England squad.
- The Arsenal stars have faced backlash for this decision.
- Thomas Tuchel has commented on the withdrawals.
Thomas Tuchel has broken his silence on the withdrawals of Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka from his England squad, amid backlash towards the Arsenal players for making this decision.
Ten Gunners players have now returned to London Colney over the last week, pulling out of their respective international camps to ensure they don’t exacerbate minor injury issues they’re currently carrying. Piero Hincapie is the latest to withdraw, leaving Ecuador’s set-up after sustaining a knock against Morocco last week.
Rice and Saka controversially pulled out just hours after travelling to St. George’s Park on Friday. This has sparked accusations of Arsenal players deliberately exaggerating fitness problems to get out of playing in friendlies, although Tuchel has now dismissed this discourse by clarifying that these decision were encouraged by the England medical team.
Thomas Tuchel explains Bukayo Saka and Declan Rice England withdrawals
Tuchel named a 35-man squad for this set of international fixtures. It’s understood that part of the thinking behind calling up so many players was not only to assess several options over the course of the camp, but also to ensure players who have been overburdened with minutes at club level could enjoy a short rest before the run-in.
Rice and Saka were among the list of ten England players granted five days off before joining up with the Three Lions’ squad. However, upon arriving at the St. George’s Park training camp, the two Arsenal stars were then sent back to London Colney after having medical assessments.
“There is nothing more to add from me as a coach; I’m not a medical expert,” Tuchel said in his press conference on Monday.
“We had an assessment after the match, and none of them were able to stay and get any minutes, so we released them.
“They had a medical assessment, they wanted desperately to play, just to get the narrative straight, they wanted desperately to get involved but it just made no sense to take this risk.
“If it would have been maybe a last game of the season, we would have kept them and tried everything but in this moment of the season, it did not make sense.
“The risk for making it worse was clearly too big, they were both in discomfort, clearly in discomfort when we did the medical assessments.
He added on the respective players’ potential return dates: “So it made no sense for them to stay. Everyone will be out for quite some days, but not dramatically. The assessment then with the picture, then slightly better than his feeling, but he [Noni Madueke] will be out for some days.”
Tuchel says he’s ‘disappointed’ by England absences
England play Japan on Tuesday night at Wembley, and the German manager will be without some key personnel for this clash. Thus, it’s understandable that he’d be feeling somewhat dejected about not being able to experiment with the team he expects to use at the World Cup.
That said, the former Chelsea head coach has explained that his disappointment doesn’t lie with the players, who need to prioritise their long-term durability over involvement in a friendly match.
"I'm disappointed but not disappointed with the players."
— Sky Sports Football (@SkyFootball) March 30, 2026
Thomas Tuchel addresses the withdrawal of three Arsenal players from the England national team squad 🗣️ pic.twitter.com/vpArPKvIcH
“We are disappointed, but not disappointed with the players,” he said.
“We want everyone in good spirits and in [good] health but it’s the reality of the season and being in March, having players that are in European matches and in more than just one competition.
“That’s just the reality of it. We’ve given players time to rest, we have players in camp who have already played more minutes than they did last season. There are some red flags and some concerns. I think some players needed the mental break from football.
“We could see that in the energy when they came back into camp but this is also our last camp before America.
“I am not upset or angry with the players, I got the feeling that everyone was desperate to come.”
