Why Real Madrid star was not called up for national team duty | OneFootball

England national team head coach Thomas Tuchel has provided an explanation for his decision not to call Real Madrid star Jude Bellingham up to his latest squad.

Midfielder Bellingham is for his part of course fresh off marking his return to the pitch over the last couple of weeks.

After undergoing shoulder surgery over the summer, the 21-year-old has been gradually reintegrated into his XI by Real Madrid headmaster Xabi Alonso.

In turn, it had been suggested that Bellingham was likely to earn a recall on the part of his native England for the October international break, too.

As alluded to above, however, upon the Three Lions’ latest squad being unveiled on Friday, the former Borussia Dortmund talent was nowhere to be seen.

Speaking in his ensuing press conference this afternoon, the subject of Bellingham’s absence was in turn put to the aforementioned Thomas Tuchel.

And England’s headmaster was honest in his response, explaining:

“I understand your focus on Jude. First of all he’s a very special player and for special players there can be special rules, I get this. But for this camp we decided that we stick with our straightforward decision to invite the same team. That applies also for Jude. I think on top of it there’s the situation that he has not fully gathered rhythm yet at Real Madrid. He’s back in the team, he hasn’t finished one full match until now, he has only started one match. So he is at the moment in the period where he gets his rhythm, where he gets back to full strength. We had a phone call, and there was no issue from that side. There is no problem at all. There is no personal problem.”

Conor Laird – GSFN