England whittle down squad as Arsenal stars return early amid injury worries | OneFootball

Midfielder and striker did not feature in first friendly

Bukayo Saka and Declan Rice have returned to Arsenal early from England duty for medical assessments.

Saka and Rice were part of an 11-strong group that joined up with the 35-man squad earlier on Friday after being given more time to recover from gruelling club schedules.

Bayern Munich’s Harry Kane was among those 11, as were Manchester City’s Marc Guehi and Nico O’Reilly.

The plan was for Tuchel to then integrate his stars into Tuesday’s friendly against Japan, but he will now be without eight players as the squad is given a revision.

Saka and Rice are the leading two figures that will not play any part at Wembley, although there is no update on their fitness levels.

Noni Madueke hobbled off against Uruguay with an injury, and was spotted in a knee brace after the full-time whistle in the latest injury blow for Mikel Arteta, who saw Gabriel and William Saliba both pull out of their respective nations’ squads with issues.

Crystal Palace midfielder Adam Wharton will also return to his club after he also picked up a knock on Friday evening.

Centre-backs John Stones and Fikayo Tomori will not play against Japan, with the former injuring himself in training ahead of the Uruguay clash, while former Chelsea man Tomori will return to Italy after he started alongside Harry Maguire yesterday.

Ex-Arsenal shot-stopper Aaron Ramsdale and Dominic Calvert-Lewin will also return to their clubs, Newcastle United and Leeds United respectively.