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Thomas Tuchel: Arsenal player withdrawals look 'suspicious'

Thomas Tuchel: Arsenal player withdrawals look 'suspicious'

Thomas Tuchel has admitted the withdrawal of Arsenal players from international duty looks "suspicious".

The England boss has seen Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka return to their club because they are unable to play on Tuesday (31.03.26) night against Japan, while their teammate Noni Madueke was injured against Uruguay on Friday (27.03.26).

The trio have taken the number of Arsenal players leaving their national squads around the world to 11, but Tuchel insisted the England players are genuinely unfit to play.

Asked about the situation by talkSPORT, he said: "Everyone can do the math and it's a lot of players, of course.

"During the situation, it looks a bit suspicious but I can only talk for our players.

"I still have 100% trust in the honesty of Bukayo and Declan. We did medical tests. I saw them. I have no reason to believe that Declan is not honest with me. I have no reason to believe Bukayo is not honest. But given the amount of Arsenal players, I understand the look."

Tuchel warned Noni is likely to be out of action for some time, while his teammates will miss "quite some days".

He said: "Noni is out for some days and maybe some weeks.

"Everybody will be out for quite some days but not dramatically.

"It's disappointing, but I'm not upset with the players, I'm not angry with the players.

"I got the feeling that everyone was desperate to come. Some of the injured players even stayed to start their treatment here. That just shows me they want to be around the group.

"No one left straight away. Everyone stayed, had another dinner, had another night, had another breakfast, because it's a good spirit and that's how it should be.

"I’m not sure if I want to give the nature of the injuries away. I think Arsenal would not be happy but Declan feels a discomfort since quite a while, and he’s playing through it, and he’s just now on the edge. It’s the same with Bukayo.

"He played in pain through the Carabao final and we could see that he had not the same impact that he wishes to have for his club against Man City.

"You can see it and he confirmed it straight away. He tried with treatment in the three days to get rid of it and be ready but it's just too much of pain.

"We will not push players now who are at 70 per cent through a friendly match."

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