{"id":2329,"date":"2026-06-10T00:14:57","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T00:14:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/?p=2329"},"modified":"2026-06-10T00:14:57","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T00:14:57","slug":"world-cup-2026-england-boss-thomas-tuchel-says-bukayo-sakas-fitness-is-being-carefully-managed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/?p=2329","title":{"rendered":"World Cup 2026: England boss Thomas Tuchel says Bukayo Saka&#8217;s fitness is being carefully managed"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\"><b class=\"ssrcss-1xjjfut-BoldText e5tfeyi3\">Thomas Tuchel says Bukayo Saka needs to be carefully steered back to full fitness as England head into a World Cup where they must &#8220;dare to dream&#8221;.<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">History is against 1966 winners England, head coach Tuchel pointed out.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">But his view is that &#8220;a bit of luck&#8221;, plus sharp focus and self-belief, could make his team serious trophy challengers if they come through the early rounds.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Having his most important players available may be key, and Saka ranks highly among that contingent.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The Arsenal winger missed part of the climax to the domestic season because of an Achilles injury, though he did return in time for the club&#8217;s run-in as they won the Premier League title.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Tuchel said Saka, who has scored 14 goals in 48 appearances for the Three Lions, still requires careful attention before the tournament &#8211; which has raised some concerns given he is a key player.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;We still have to take a little bit of care for Bukayo (Saka) who had an injury in March and carried it through the club campaign,&#8221; Tuchel told a news conference.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;He made himself available at the end of the season and did so brilliantly, but he was managed in between matches. That continues a bit at the moment &#8211; we are building him up.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;We just came from training and everyone was involved including Bukayo.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Tuchel said he must assess Saka and the rest of his England squad before deciding who starts the final warm-up match against Costa Rica on Wednesday (21:00 BST).<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Having made 11 changes at half-time in Saturday&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/football\/live\/c5yenj3pj1dt\" class=\"ssrcss-18834jl-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\">1-0 win against New Zealand<\/a>Tuchel will give some players a longer run-out to build their fitness before the tournament opener with Croatia on 17 June.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">John Stones is among the players who could benefit from more game time having played a peripheral role at Manchester City last season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Of course (Stones can start). Everyone can start &#8211; everyone is fit and ready and John is one of them,&#8221; said Tuchel.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Before this, we have two more matches to play and hopefully we take the next step. Hopefully we all stay healthy and have the full availability for Croatia.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;No-one needs a break. Everyone is available which is very good news. No (injury) complaints after the first match.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;(We&#8217;ve had) one day of recovery and two good training sessions. We are ready to give it a push tomorrow &#8211; meaning more than 45 minutes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Players will play 60, maybe 70 minutes. We will make this decision in the afternoon.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thomas Tuchel says Bukayo Saka needs to be carefully steered back to full fitness as England head into a World&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2330,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2329\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}