Arsenal duo Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka will not feature for England this international break after pulling out of the squad that will take on Greece and Ireland.
Both players were substituted with injuries during Arsenal’s 1-1 draw with Chelsea on Sunday.
Both players started every game for England at Euro 2024, with Rice starting all four and Saka starting three of England’s four games since the start of the new season. Saka missed England’s last outing with an injury that kept him out of Arsenal’s games against Bournemouth and Shakhtar Donetsk.
Saka went off injured at the weekend following a foul from Marc Cucurella, while Rice managed to play through the pain of a reported broken toe that had kept him out of last week’s Champions League trip to Milan before he could no longer continue.
Speaking after Sunday’s game, Mikel Arteta suggested both players would pull out of Lee Carsley’s final England squad.
Elsewhere, Martin Odegaard is heading to Norway, with manager Stale Solbakken refusing to rule out his captain’s potential involvement over the next fortnight.
Along with everyone else.
About fucking time
Some sense at last. We’ll have to see what Solbakken does, if he overplays Odegaard or sends him back broken I think there’ll be riots.
If MO turns up fit and ready then their coach has every right to play him. Sucks but can’t really blame their manager if his captain has decided he wants to play!
He is their captain. I think as long as he can play, the man himself will commit to his national team.
Good for us if he gets some minutes but what a waste of time the nations league – give the players a winter break instead
Good.
Does anyone know what the Saka injury is? Not sure I’ve seen it reported yet.
PhysioScout mentioned his adductor/hamstring here https://www.instagram.com/p/DCPCPjLTKRX/?igsh=ZDB1NXQyY3l5bnp1
Thanks!
On the opposite way, Sambi Lonkonga joined the Belgian NT following few injuries. Might help increase its market value in case Sevilla can’t find the money this summer!
Lokonga* oopsi
Great hews for Sambi! Good to see him improving and developing his potential.
Unsure if he will play tho
Pretty much depends on the outcome of Thursday’s game against Italy but i guess it’s still good for his confidences!
sambi is a good player. he just didn’t fit at arsenal. two seasons ago, arsenal were lucky as he was supposed to be cover for xhaka. good for us, xhaka (and rice last season) remained injury-free.
In my opinion he would have been decent to cover for Partey. His qualities are best used when he plays as an 6 rather than as an 8.
Although this is just my personal opinion since people already struggled to find his best position when he was at Anderlecht.
Imo his qualities would have been better used to cover for Partey rather than Xhaka
Fucking outrageous that Odegaard is heading off to play for Norway having only just come back from injury and only played one full game for us since. Especially when you remember that he was injured playing for his country.
Arteta should have told the Norwegian FA to fuck off for even asking for Odegaard to be released to play international football this week.
This is a massive piss-take.
Maybe he wants to go, can’t really stop him if he does.
Agree with that is how it is, but not how it should be. We as his employer should have some say on what he does.
I know there can be compensation for an injured player, but the money is the least worry if you lose a vital part of your squad for a couple of months.
We all have been brainwashed into nationalistic pride thru one medium or the other in diff circumstances. I believe this would have been more about MO’s willingness to represent his country; than the Norwegian FA outrightly dictating terms.
If players refuse to play a game for their countries – even if they have a good reason – national team coaches can become nasty to them. And every player wants to play in the World Cup ( except Ben White).
Arsenal should have simply refused to release Odegaard and told the NFA to get lost.
As things stand, we’d end up with UEFA (even FIFA) getting involved and Odegaard would have ended up playing anyway and we’d got a massive sanction to ‘pour decourager les autres’.
It has to change, but the authorities just get defensive if called o their errors.
ben white would love to play in the world cup with “play” being the operative word. he just doesn’t want to sit on the bench behind kyle walker.
Ben is also capable of playing CB. But he couldn’t get past the massive talents that are Harry Maguire and Tyrone Mings.
Yeah, you don’t mess with UEFA/FIFA’s revenue streams! All under the guise of playing for the national team. ALL at the expense of the player’s wellbeing … No scruples.
glad to hear they’re getting a break. these guys play far too many games. bellingham broke down. rodri is out for the season, which has dented man city championship aspirations in a major way. you can see dex is way off his typical pace since the euros.
however, saka has looked the absolute best i’ve ever seen him. arteta has to find a way to get the boys creating good chances again.
Good! Fuck interlulls! Fuck them in the lungs!