Jude Bellingham was the only England player to miss training on Monday ahead of their international friendly against Senegal.
The Three Lions maintained their 100 per cent start to their World Cup qualifying campaign on Saturday with a 1-0 win away to Andorra.
Their ‘boring’ and uninspiring performance left a lot to be desired however, with Thomas Tuchel looking for major improvement on Tuesday night when they take on Senegal.
In his pre-match press conference, Tuchel hinted he would heavily rotate his side and said he had no new injury issues to worry about.
Aston Villa striker Ollie Watkins had pulled out of the squad before the Andorra game ‘as a precaution due to a minor injury’.
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However, as the 25-man squad trained ahead of the friendly at the City Ground in Nottingham, there was one notable absentee in the form of Real Madrid midfielder Bellingham.
The Football Association have since announced: ’24 players are out training at St. George’s Park this afternoon.
‘Jude Bellingham is absent to attend a family funeral and will return to camp later today.’
The 21-year-old started the win over Andorra but, like many of his teammates, struggled to make an impact and was replaced in the dying minutes by Morgan Gibbs-White.
He will be available for selection against Senegal after which he will link back up with Real Madrid as they begin their Club World Cup campaign in the USA next week.
Jude Bellingham’s brother sets transfer record
It’s been a big week for the Bellingham family with Jude’s younger brother Jobe set to follow in his footsteps and sign for Borussia Dortmund.
The 19-year-old played a key role in Sunderland’s promotion campaign last season and was linked with a number of Premier League clubs including Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal.
But he’ll be playing in Germany next season after a record-breaking transfer fee was agreed between the Black Cats and Dortmund.
Read the full story here.
Dropping a few hints about his line-up against the African giants, Tuchel confirmed that Bukayo Saka will start having not been able to play the Arsenal star before because of injury and fitness issues.
‘Very excited [to have Saka available],’ the German said in his pre-match press conference.
‘I could see he worked hard to come back from his injury. He had this minor discomfort in the last match which worried me a bit.
‘He had just one training session with us. A full session and one half training session. We decided to not let him play, to not take any risks.
‘But he trains with a smile, he had [on Sunday] an amazing training session with a lot of quality. He will start. Of course he’s a key player for us.’
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