Declan Rice has withdrawn from Thomas Tuchel’s England squad (Picture: Getty) Arsenal star Declan Rice has reportedly pulled out of England’s squad for the side’s upcoming Nations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. Sign up for In The Mixer, Metro's football newsletter Get exclusive analysis and previews of the biggest games every Friday. Sign up now for free. 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. Tuchel’s side are preparing for four Nations League matches (Picture: Getty) England are taking a cautious approach with Rice’s fitness (Picture: Getty) 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. Tuchel's England squad after latest withdrawals Goalkeepers: Jordan Pickford (Everton), Jason Steele (Brighton & Hove Albion), James Trafford (Leeds United) Defenders: Trent Alexander-Arnold (Real Madrid), Jarrad Branthwaite (Everton), Trevoh Chalobah (Como), Marc Guehi (Manchester City), Lewis Hall (Newcastle United), Ezri Konsa (Arsenal), Nico O’Reilly (Manchester City), Jarell Quansah (Bayer Leverkusen) Midfielders: Elliot Anderson (Manchester City), Jude Bellingham (Real Madrid), James Garner (Everton), Morgan Gibbs-White (Nottingham Forest), Myles Lewis-Skelly (Arsenal), Alex Scott (AFC Bournemouth) Forwards: Dominic Calvert-Lewin (Leeds United), Eberechi Eze (Arsenal), Anthony Gordon (Barcelona), Harry Kane (Bayern Munich), Rio Ngumoha (Liverpool), Morgan Rogers (Chelsea), Bukayo Saka (Arsenal) 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. Salmon has been forced to pull out of England U18 duty through injury (Picture: Getty) {"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Tuchel explains Alexander-Arnold selection, no White, in his first post-World Cup England squad","contentUrl":"https:\/\/videos.metro.co.uk\/video\/met\/2026\/09\/18\/2868197019731670448\/480x270_MP4_2868197019731670448.mp4","description":"Tuchel says that Ben White would have made the cut if an injury didn't prevent this.","duration":"T5M25S","height":270,"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/i.dailymail.com\/1s\/2026\/09\/18\/14\/111330939-0-image-a-13_1789736768212.jpg","uploadDate":"2026-09-18T14:09:10+0100","width":480} To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Up Next Previous Page Next Page wind