England coach Thomas Tuchel defended the treatment of players on national-team duty after Ezri Konsa and Alex Scott on Monday became the latest squad members to pull out during an international break rife with injury issues across Europe.
“I can just assure everyone that we take care of them in the best possible way — that player welfare and player health in priority No. 1,” Tuchel said, seemingly in a message to the clubs where the injured players have returned.
Scott, who made his first start for England in the 7-0 win over Croatia on Saturday, has a thigh injury and could be out for up to eight weeks — a scenario that has left his club, Bournemouth, unhappy ahead of its busy run of fixtures over the next month, the Daily Telegraph reported.
Konsa, Tuchel said, has been managing “discomfort” the Arsenal defender already was feeling when he arrived in camp two weeks ago, and has since collected a second injury.
They have been ruled out of England’s fourth and final Nations League match of this extended international period, at home to the Czech Republic on Tuesday.
“I think the players are for two-and-a-half weeks our players,” Tuchel said, “and as much as we trust the clubs to put the players’ health first, I think the clubs have to trust us that we put the players’ health first.”
Manchester City left back Nico O’Reilly previously had to leave the England squad because of injury midway through the camp. Tino Livramento, Kobbie Mainoo, Cole Palmer, Marcus Rashford and Declan Rice pulled out of international duty after the last round of Premier League matches — before the England squad first met up.
Tuchel listed the reasons that could explain some of the injuries sustained by his players and perhaps others around Europe. Kylian Mbappé (France), Kai Havertz (Germany) and Ferran Torres (Spain) are examples of high-profile players who have returned to their clubs with injury issues over the last few weeks, while Erling Haaland was seen limping while playing for Norway on Sunday and asked to be substituted.
“It’s just in the nature of it — new training style, new training times maybe, different pitches, a lot of travel, different positions to play, different style of play,” Tuchel said. “It just increases the risk of injury.”
Tuchel has a clear conscience about Scott
A long absence for Scott would be a huge blow for Bournemouth, which is about to embark on the first European campaign in its history after qualifying for the Europa League and is scheduled to play nine games in a month before the next international break starting mid-November.
Tuchel said Scott had “slight discomfort” during the Croatia match but did not want to come off and didn’t feel injured after the match or the next day when he underwent a scan.
“I can 100% understand that Bournemouth is unhappy and sad because they lose a key player,” Tuchel said. “I can just say from the moment that we took the decision to let him play, there was absolutely no risk whatsoever apparent to me or our physical staff that we have a risk of an injury.”
Tuchel described Scott’s injury situation as “a one-off.”
Kane set to tie appearance record
One player fit and available for England is captain Harry Kane, who — if he gets onto the field — will make his 125th appearance for his country, tying the all-time caps record with former goalkeeper Peter Shilton.
Kane has a national-record 89 goals in 124 England games. That’s 36 more goals than Wayne Rooney, who is No. 2 on the scoring list.
