Bukayo Saka: Arsenal winger to make England return against Senegal after injury worry

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·9 giugno 2025

Bukayo Saka: Arsenal winger to make England return against Senegal after injury worry

Gunners star was not risked against Andorra after knock suffered on final day of season limited his ability to train

Thomas Tuchel has said that he will make changes to his England team for Tuesday’s friendly against Senegal and hinted that Harry Kane could start with Bukayo Saka in attack.

The Three Lions will be looking for a quick reaction at Nottingham Forest’s City Ground following a disappointing display on Saturday when they only won 1-0 in a World Cup qualifier against 173rd-ranked Andorra in Barcelona.

Senegal should provide sterner opposition, and Tuchel has revealed that he will change elements of his starting lineup for the friendly.

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Asked whether the lacklustre performance at the weekend had changed his selection plans, Tuchel said: “It always does, because the next game is the most difficult. This is the game which we make our conclusions from.

“There will be some changes. I will not let you know how many of them, but there will be some changes. We want to reward players who kept the level up on [Saturday]. We will see some fresh legs. We will see some new faces.”

When asked who the captain will be, Tuchel strongly hinted at starting Kane again by saying: “It is very likely that it is the same captain.”

Tuchel said he is looking forward to working with Saka for the first time, after the Arsenal winger missed the March camp through injury and was left out on Saturday as a precaution.

Saka is in line to start against Senegal after conducting the pre-match press conference on Monday.

“Very excited, because I could see that he worked hard to come back from his injury,” Tuchel said about Saka.

“He had this minor discomfort in the last match [of Arsenal’s season], which worried me a little bit. Then he just had one full training session and one half training session.

“We decided in the end, to protect myself a little bit, to not let him be in the squad. But he is happy. He will start tomorrow and, of course, is a key player for us.”

Tuchel replied “yes, of course” when asked whether he would like to give some game time to Al-Ahli’s Ivan Toney against Senegal.

The German also admitted that the Club World Cup will come into his thinking, as he attempts to navigate not overworking any of the nine players set to compete in that competition, which begins this weekend.

“It did already, and it will again be in our thinking. But we will not forget also what we want to see,” he said.

“We are thinking of giving the players a little more freedom within the structure. Tomorrow we face a more physical and more demanding team.”