Declan Rice withdrawn at half-time after illness in England’s World Cup win over Norway | OneFootball

Declan Rice was withdrawn at half-time after illness as England beat Norway to reach the World Cup semi-finals. His involvement had been in doubt until late.

The Arsenal midfielder had been ill and felt hamstring discomfort, missing Wednesday and Thursday training, though he worked on Friday and started under Thomas Tuchel. "We decided at half-time to be more offensive, to make a change with more attacking intent. We were 1-0 down and I did not want to go back on that despite the equaliser," he told the BBC.

Jude Bellingham levelled at 45+2 in first-half stoppage time. "We had to take off Elliot Anderson or Declan. Given Declan had suffered over the last three days, when he spent most of the time in bed, I knew he could not last 90 minutes."

"There was a chance the game could go to 120 minutes, so I did not want to waste another change. The decision was to remove Declan earlier than he might have needed, simply to save a substitution later in the match."

Rice was replaced by Eberechi Eze at the interval as England won 2-1 after extra time to reach the last four.

Source: L'Équipe