Thomas Tuchel has admitted Cole Palmer is missing “way too many camps” with England after the Chelsea midfielder withdrew from the latest international squad because of pain and discomfort.
Palmer was initially named in England’s squad for four Nations League matches, starting with Saturday’s meeting with world champions Spain at Wembley, but later pulled out alongside Declan Rice, Kobbie Mainoo, Marcus Rashford and Tino Livramento.
The Chelsea star was left out of England’s World Cup squad earlier this summer and has made only three appearances for the national team since Tuchel took charge at the beginning of 2025.
Persistent injuries have continued to disrupt Palmer’s involvement, with the 24-year-old joking last week that “I had one leg for 10 months” while discussing his battle with a groin problem.
Tuchel believes Palmer’s latest withdrawal represents another opportunity missed 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 for it. It’s just the fact. He misses way too many camps with injuries and I only want to rely on what I personally witness and what I see within my team, and for that you have to be in camp.
“If you’re not in camp, there’s a next level to impress that you cannot achieve because you only can do it when you’re actually with me on the pitch and with us on the pitch so, yeah, it is a missed opportunity.
“My understanding is that he plays with discomfort and pain, and he cannot compete on the highest level with discomfort and pain, so he withdrew and informed us and Chelsea informed us. That is my that is my understanding.”
England reject idea of managing players’ workload
Tuchel also rejected the suggestion that England were taking a cautious approach to their squad because of the demanding schedule.
The German has spoken about the sense of togetherness within his squad, but insisted the withdrawals do not indicate that players are reluctant to represent their country.
“We are not managing load,” he continued.
“When I was in club football, I used the term of an ‘international break.’ This is when you hear it on the other side, a totally different picture.
“This is not an ‘international break,’ and I think that’s what we created now. It’s a competitive environment, but it’s also an environment where the players love to be at when they walk through the door.
“Where y love to train with each other, be with each other. That’s what togetherness and brotherhood looks like, and that’s what we created latest from last September in qualification.
“We will never compromise on that, and we will never let this creep in that we have the feeling that players don’t want to come. It’s fair enough, but we focus on the guys who absolutely want to play for England.”
Tuchel fears fixture schedule could increase injury risk
England’s four matches against Spain, Czechia, Croatia and Czechia will take place over an 11-day period, with the final game scheduled for October 6.
Tuchel believes the combination of a long international camp and a congested run of matches could leave players more vulnerable to injury, particularly after a summer tournament that left many of his squad with little time to recover before the new season.
“Listen, it is also the first time for me doing a camp after a major tournament and, as I said, there can be a bit of a mix of emotions. We have not seen each other since the tournament and there is a new competition going on, so there are a lot of mixed emotions and a lot of different influences in this camp.
“But the longer it goes on, the more I feel the focus is coming back, and playing against the reigning world champions tomorrow will help.
“This cannot be right for the players after they struggled in having a proper preseason because they played the tournament until the very last day and struggled to decompress and then have no pre-season, basically to start after one week or 10 days, they are back in competitive football.
“This is possible but this is normally what comes and bites you and what comes for you in exactly these moments, in November, December, January. It comes for you when you don’t have a proper build-up and an international window with two days in between matches twice, I’m not sure I like that.
“I watched yesterday a match between Netherlands and Germany and I think after 36 minutes there were already three players injured. Per se, it is not a problem to play the match on Saturday or for them to play it yesterday. I think more, it is a different load, different environment, different pitches, different training exercises that increases the risk a little bit for the players, a different style of play than for their clubs, different position for some players.
“But we are always on top of the data, we always take care of the players, player priority comes first 100%. On the other hand, these players we have can play four matches in this period of time, it is what they will do with their clubs after this window so I also don’t see why we would manage their minutes for the clubs. We have our own priorities.
“The players want to win these matches. We want to win and qualify for the quarterfinals of the Nations League. We will take care, we will be responsible but we have our own motives and our own goals to reach.”
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