England have confirmed that Arsenal pair Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka are among the eight players who will be dropping out of Thomas Tuchel’s squad ahead of Tuesday’s friendly against Japan.
Rice and Saka will be returning to the Premier League leaders for “medical assessment”, having only joined up with the England camp on Friday as part of a group of 11 players who had been rested for the 1-1 draw with Uruguay.
Arsenal’s Noni Madueke and Crystal Palace’s Adam Wharton will also return to their clubs after picking up injuries in Friday’s draw at Wembley, while Manchester City’s John Stones will also leave the camp after picking up a calf injury.
Fikayo Tomori and Dominic Calvert-Lewin will also depart having featured in the Uruguay game, along with goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale, leaving Tuchel with a 27-man squad for Tuesday’s match against Japan at Wembley.
Meanwhile, captain Harry Kane, Morgan Rogers, Anthony Gordon, Elliott Anderson, Nico O’Reilly, Marc Guehi, Ezri Konsa, Dan Burn and Dean Henderson will be joining the squad after arriving into camp on Friday.
The England boss had already revealed a novel approach to the two games, explaining that he wanted to “split” his squad in two for the pre-World Cup friendlies and give his core group of players some rest.
Arsenal winger Madueke was forced off in the first half after being involved in a heavy collision, but Manchester City’s Phil Foden is fine after he was replaced following a forceful tackle from Uruguay defender Ronald Araujo.
Rice and Saka had reported along with the other nine late arrivals, but England confirmed that the pair will be returning to Arsenal for medical assessment – one day after they had arrived for duty.
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