Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka were ‘desperate’ to play for England – Thomas Tuchel

Thomas Tuchel says Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka were desperate to play for England but felt the risk of the Arsenal duo aggravating injuries was “way too big” at this stage of the season.

The German coach picked an expanded 35-man squad for the final camp before making his World Cup selection, with the first wave of players joined by 11 established names on Friday.

Rice and Saka were among the late arrivals but, having watched the 1-1 draw with Uruguay at Wembley, were among five injury withdrawals the following day, along with Arsenal team-mate Noni Madueke.

The fact 10 of the Premier League leaders’ players have withdrawn from their respective national teams in recent days has raised suspicions of club taking precedence over country but Tuchel dismissed such talk.

“They joined, had a medical assessment, wanted desperately to play, to just get the narrative straight,” the England boss said of Rice and Saka. “Wanted desperately to be involved.

“But it made just 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 just way too big. They were both clearly in discomfort when we did the medical assessment, so it made absolutely no sense that they stayed.”

On Arsenal winger Madueke, who left Wembley in a knee brace after starting against Uruguay, Tuchel said: “The assessment was then with a picture slightly better than his feeling, but he will be out for some days.”

Tuchel added on talkSPORT: “Everyone can do the maths and it’s a lot of players, of course, and during the situation, it looks a bit suspicious, but I can only talk for our players.”

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