England’s mass exodus blamed by clubs on FA delaying Thomas Tuchel start

Premier League clubs believe the Football Association left the door open for the mass England player withdrawal by agreeing to delay Thomas Tuchel’s start date until January 1.

Lee Carsley has been hit by an unprecedented eight withdrawals ahead of his final games as interim manager – the Nations League fixtures against Greece and Republic of Ireland.

The FA last month confirmed the appointment of Tuchel as England’s next permanent manager, but the German will not officially start work until the new year.

That, in the eyes of some key figures, has contributed to the huge scale of withdrawals, with Arsenal pair Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka, Manchester City duo Phil Foden and Jack Grealish, Chelsea’s Cole Palmer and Levi Colwill, Liverpool’s Trent Alexander-Arnold and Southampton goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale all pulling out.

Some are already speculating there could be further withdrawals after Thursday night’s game against Greece and ahead of the match against Ireland at Wembley on Sunday.

The November internationals are often hit by a number of pull-outs. This time last year, an initial six players withdrew from the games against Malta and North Macedonia with that figure rising to seven. In November 2021, England were hit by six player departures from the camp which eventually rose to eight before the second of the two games.

But Tuchel’s late start as permanent head coach is also seen as a reason inside some clubs as to why so many players have pulled out of this month’s games.

One source told Telegraph Sport: “I’d guess that at least half of those players would still be with the squad if Thomas Tuchel was in charge for these games. That’s not to say they don’t have injuries or issues, but players aren’t going to take any risks when they know the current manager won’t be there after this break.

‘Players are physically and mentally tired’

“Players are physically and mentally tired, and many of them, and their clubs, see this as the only opportunity for a break before a run of a lot of games packed into a short space of time. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see more withdrawals after the first game against Greece.”

The FA has justified Tuchel’s January 1 start date by insisting that the plan had always been for Carsley to take charge of three camps, while the German wants to focus solely on the 2026 World Cup.

One of the players Carsley called up following the withdrawals, Jarrad Branthwaite, had to work on his fitness away from the rest of the squad at St George’s Park the day before England fly out to Athens for the Greece game.

Liverpool’s Jarell Quansah was called up from the Under-21s to train with the seniors on Tuesday in Branthwaite’s place.