Thomas Tuchel has admitted Cole Palmer is missing “too many camps”. England after the Chelsea The midfielder withdrew from the last international squad due to pain and discomfort.
Palmer was initially named in the England squad for four Nations League games, starting with Saturday’s meeting with world champions Spain at Wembley, but was later withdrawn alongside Declan Rice, Kobbie Mainoo, Marcus Rashford and Tino Livramento.
The Chelsea star was left out of England World Cup team at the start of the summer and has made just three appearances for the national team since Tuchel took over at the start of 2025.
Nagging injuries have continued to disrupt Palmer’s participation, with the 24-year-old joking last week that “I had a leg for 10 months” while discussing his battle with a groin problem.
Tuchel believes Palmer’s latest retirement represents another missed opportunity at international level.
“For sure it’s a missed opportunity (for Palmer). It’s another missed opportunity. He misses too many opportunities, and I don’t blame him. It’s just a fact. He misses too many camps with injuries and I just want to trust what I personally see and what I see within my team, and that’s why you have to be on the field.”
“If you’re not on the field, there’s a next level to impress that you can’t reach because you can only do that when you’re with me on the field and with us on the field, so yeah, it’s a missed opportunity.
“My understanding is that he’s playing with discomfort and pain, and he can’t compete at the highest level with discomfort and pain, so he withdrew and informed us and Chelsea informed us. That’s my understanding.”
England rejects the idea of managing players’ workloads
Tuchel also dismissed the suggestion that England were taking a cautious approach with their squad due to the demanding schedule.
The German has spoken of the feeling of unity within his squad, but insisted the withdrawals do not indicate players are reluctant to represent their country.
“We’re not handling the load,” he continued.
“When I was in club football, I used the term ‘international break’. It’s when you feel it on the other side, a totally different picture.
“This is not an ‘international break’, and I think that’s what we’ve created now. It’s a competitive environment, but it’s also an environment where players like to be when they walk in the door.
“Where you like to train, be with each other. That’s the togetherness and brotherhood, and that’s what we created from last September in the qualifiers.
“We’re never going to commit to that, and we’re never going to let that slip because we feel the players don’t want to come. It’s fair, but we’re focusing on the lads who want to play for England.”
Tuchel fears the fixture schedule could increase the risk of injury
England’s four games against Spain, the Czech Republic, Croatia and the Czech Republic will all take place over an 11-day period, with the final game scheduled for October 6.
Tuchel believes the combination of a long international campaign and a congested run of fixtures could leave players more vulnerable to injury, particularly after a summer tournament that left many of his squad with little time to recover ahead of the new season.
“Look, it’s also my first time doing a camp after a major tournament, and like I said, there can be a little bit of mixed emotions. We haven’t seen each other since the tournament and there’s a new competition, so there’s a lot of mixed emotions and a lot of different influences going into this camp.
“But the more time goes on, the more I feel the focus is coming back, and playing against the reigning world champions tomorrow will help.
“That can’t be right for the players after struggling to have a proper pre-season because they played the tournament until the last day and struggled to decompress and then have no pre-season, basically to start after a week or 10 days, they’re back in competitive football.
“That’s possible, but usually that’s what bites you and what comes for you exactly at the moment, in November, December, January. It comes when you don’t have good preparation and an international window with two days between games twice, I’m not sure I like it.
“I watched a match between Holland and Germany yesterday and I think after 36 minutes there were already three injured players. Per se, it’s not a problem to play Saturday’s game or to play it yesterday. I think more, it’s a different load, different environment, different pitches, different training exercises that increases the risk a little bit for the players, for a different style of play for a player, a different position for his club.
“But we’re always on top of the data, we’re always looking after the players, the players’ priority is 100% first. Instead, these players we have can play four games in that time period, that’s what they’re going to do with their clubs after that window, so I don’t see why we would manage their minutes for the clubs either. We have our own priorities.”
“The players want to win these games. We want to win and qualify for the quarter-finals of the Nations League. We will take care of ourselves, we will be responsible but we have our own reasons and our own goals to achieve.”