England head coach Thomas Tuchel has revealed that both Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka pushed to remain with the England squad despite their respective injury concerns, but says the medical assessment left him with no choice but to send them back to Arsenal.
Tuchel was keen to make clear that neither player withdrew voluntarily, stating both were desperate to be involved before the decision was made to release them in the interest of their long-term fitness.
Speaking to the media, as relayed by Hayters TV, Tuchel said: “They had a medical assessment, they wanted desperately to play, just to get the narrative straight. They wanted desperately to be involved. But it just made no sense to take this risk.
“Maybe if it would have been the last game of the season, we would have kept them and tried everything. But in this moment of the season it just made no sense.
“The risk for making it worse was just way too big. They were both in discomfort, clearly in discomfort when we did the medical assessment. So it just made no sense that they stayed.”
