England manager Thomas Tuchel has disclosed that Arsenal pair Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka were “desperate” to play against Japan, but fitness concerns prevented their participation. The duo, along with club colleague Noni Madueke, were dismissed from the Three Lions camp on Saturday in advance of Tuesday’s international friendly. Several others have also left the squad in pre-planned moves ahead of the Japan fixture.

Rice and Saka were both present at Wembley on Friday evening to witness their England colleagues draw 1-1 with Uruguay. Madueke was forced off during the first half due to a knee problem after a hefty clash with opposition defender Rodrigo Aguirre on the edge of the penalty box. He initially persevered despite also receiving a knock to the head but was subsequently forced to depart the pitch. He was later seen exiting Wembley with his left leg in a knee brace.

Tuchel commented on the trio on Monday while addressing the media at Tottenham Hotspur’s training ground.

He said: “There is nothing more to add from me to add as a coach. I’m not a medical expert.

“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.

“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 will be out for some days.”

Arsenal are anxious about the fitness of several key players after Martin Zubimendi and left-back Piero Hincapie became the latest to pull out of international duty.

Zubimendi experienced some discomfort in his knee while Hincapie was substituted during Ecuador’s friendly stalemate with Morocco.

Tuchel did clarify he wasn’t disappointed with any of his players, with John Stones and Adam Wharton also withdrawing from his squad, for their unavailability.

He added: “We are disappointed but not disappointed with the players. 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.

“Some of the injured players even started their treatment here, which shows me they are desperate to be around the group. Everyone was more affected to leave than being able to stay.”

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