Why Arsenal pair Declan Rice and Marli Salmon have pulled out of England squads

Arsenal star Declan Rice has reportedly pulled out of England’s squad for the side’s upcoming Nations League matches due to concerns over load management.

Rice, England’s vice-captain, was named in Thomas Tuchel’s initial 27-man party on Friday ahead of the Three Lions’ clashes with Spain, the Czech Republic (playing home and away) and Croatia.

The 27-year-old completed the full 90 minutes at the weekend as Arsenal suffered their opening defeat of the season at the hands of Brighton at the Amex Stadium.

However, 48 hours on from Arsenal’s loss, England revealed in an official statement that Rice would be playing no part during the international break, along with Kobbie Mainoo, Marcus Rashford, Cole Palmer and Tino Livramento.

Tuchel has decided to call up Everton’s James Garner and Nottingham Forest’s Morgan Gibbs-White as cover for the absent quintet.

According to football.london, Rice’s shock withdrawal is not injury-related and the matter is not deemed to be ‘serious’.

It has though, been decided that a prolonged break would be beneficial for the former West Ham man ahead of Arsenal’s return to Premier League action at home to Leeds on October 10.

Rice has been dealing with a neural issue affecting his lower back and hamstring since the turn of the year, which limited his overall contribution at this summer’s World Cup.

The central midfielder was left as an unused substitute in England’s group-stage victory over Panama and was replaced at half-time against Norway, with Tuchel claiming he had spent ‘most of the time in bed’ in the build-up.

Not long after the news surrounding Rice was confirmed, it was announced that fellow Arsenal man Salmon would also be unavailable for his country due to injury.

Last week, the highly rated 17-year-old defender was selected in the England Under-18 squad for the team’s three upcoming Euro Elite League games versus Italy, France and Germany.

He has since been replaced by Chelsea’s Gabriel Sambou in the Young Lions’ squad.

Barcelona’s Ajay Tavares and West Ham’s Reon Smith, meanwhile, have been called up in place of Swansea’s Jeremy Monga and Crystal Palace’s Joel Drakes-Thomas.

Kahlil Steele had initially replaced Drakes-Thomas in the squad before he, too, had to pull out of Will Antwi’s party.

The England senior team kick off their Nations League campaign against Spain at Wembley in five days’ time.

Harry Kane and Co then travel to Prague to face off against Czech Republic next Tuesday before doing battle with Croatia in Rijeka on October 3.

Tuchel’s men conclude the international break by returning to Wembley to play host to the Czech Republic on October 6.

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