Why a raft of players have withdrawn from the England squad

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FT Desk

England boss Thomas Tuchel has some tinkering to do after no less than five players withdrew from international duty.

The Three Lions are in action over an extended three-week international break as they'll face Spain at home, Czechia away, Croatia away and then Czechia again, with the second game taking place at Wembley.

The entire Nations League group stage will be played via matches in September, October and November with a break back to club football in between. The two teams that finish in the top two positions will progress to the quarter-finals.

Unfortunately for Tuchel, he'll have to cope without Declan Rice, Cole Palmer, Tino Livramento Kobbie Mainoo and Marcus Rashford.

Here it is! 🤩

Thomas Tuchel's first #ThreeLions squad of the 2026-27 season 🦁 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

— England (@England) September 18, 2026

The official England side says the quintet withdrew "due to respective injury issues."

Rice has played more football than most over the past year as he was a key player for England and Arsenal and played the full 90 minutes in the loss versus Brighton at the weekend. Over the last six months, he had been dealing with a nerve issue in his back.

Livramento has mainly been used as a sub for Newcastle this season as he strives to get back to full fitness, while both Rashford and Mainoo were taken off by Michael Carrick in Manchester United's 1-1 draw against Fulham on Sunday. Rashford was seen leaving the pitch holding his hip and groin.

As for Palmer, the injury has been described as a minor muscle issue.

The Chelsea star was controversially left out of the 2026 World Cup squad by Tuchel but following a bright start to the new campaign with the Blues, he was brought back into the fold.

After naming Palmer in his squad for the Nations League, Tuchel previously said the player had a "point to prove" and needed "to step up" to "keep his shirt and justify the nomination".

He recently addressed the fitness issues that impacted him last season, saying:

"Physically I feel good, probably the best I've felt in ages, but I think I can [get fitter] with games and more minutes," he said.

"Before my groin injury, I'd never really been injured. Well, rarely [injured]. So then I would just come back and play when I shouldn't have played. Obviously the World Cup was coming up, so I was in a bit of a dilemma thinking, 'if I don't play I'm not going to go. But if I play then, I can't play [properly].'

"It was just a bit of a sticky situation. I didn't really know how to deal with it, but it's one of those things. I was just seeing different people, getting different ideas of why I was injured and what it was.

"Since I've come back I've been working every day to obviously stop it happening again. I just want to stay injury free, and if I'm on the pitch then I know what I can do."

Alas, he'll need to wait until the next international break to prove his worth to the German.

In place of the injured quintet will be Morgan Gibbs-White and James Garner.