Five players have withdrawn from England’s squad for this international break, including Chelsea standout Cole Palmer.
England have a busy international break, with Thomas Tuchel’s side having four Nations League games against Spain, the Czech Republic, Croatia and the Czech Republic again.
Tuchel named his latest England squad towards the end of last week, but there have since been five withdrawals that were confirmed on Monday morning.
In a statement, England have also confirmed the replacements in Tuchel’s squad. They said: ‘Tino Livramento, Kobbie Mainoo, Cole Palmer, Marcus Rashford and Declan Rice have all been ruled out of England’s forthcoming UEFA Nations League fixtures.
‘The quintet have all withdrawn from the Three Lions squad due to respective injury issues.
‘James Garner and Morgan Gibbs-White have subsequently been called up and will report to St. George’s Park on Tuesday with the rest of the squad.’
READ: Cole Palmer’s ‘load management’ absence sounds like BS to suit only Chelsea
Cole Palmer told to ‘defy’ Chelsea
Before this was confirmed, it emerged that Palmer was left out due to ‘load management’, but pundit Jamie O’Hara reckons he should ‘defy’ Chelsea and push to feature for England this month.
“I’ve had medical staff try to turn around to me and say, ‘No, you should only play 60 minutes,” O’Hara said on talkSPORT.
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“How about no? How about, ‘I’m in charge of my own destiny? I’m in charge of my football career. You ain’t in charge of my football career, I am.’
“Then Cole Palmer has to be a man and say, ‘No, I’ve been out, I’ve missed out on the England squad. I’ve missed a World Cup last season because I was injured and I weren’t playing, and I come back and I weren’t fit.’
“‘Now I am fit, and I’m ready to go and Thomas Tuchel called me up, I’m going, and if you say I’m not going, I’m still going, I’m getting in my car and I’m driving there to St George’s Park because I want to be involved with England.
“‘And you can’t tell me some geezer who’s in charge of load management can tell me that I ain’t going to play for my country.’ Do one.”
O’Hara also hit out at modern footballers, who are “weak babies”.
“They’re getting told by load managers and medical staff that you can’t do this and can’t do that,” O’Hara said.
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“You are in control of your football career.
“Do you think David Beckham, Paul Scholes, players like that, Roy Keane, anyone, international football players back in the day would let someone say, ‘You can’t go and play for your country because you’re overworked.’
“They’d say, ‘Get out of my face.’ The problem we’ve got now in the Premier League, and you’re seeing it, and I see it Tottenham, weak babies. Soft. And they get told, they’re getting parented by a Premier League football club.
“How about shut up? How about I’m going to play for my country? And I’ll decide my future, not you, I’m going to decide who tells me whether I can go or not.
“If I’ve pulled my hamstring, fine, no problem, you ain’t telling me I can’t go because I look tired. I hate it.”