{"id":4552,"date":"2026-06-21T01:36:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T01:36:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/?p=4552"},"modified":"2026-06-21T01:36:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T01:36:15","slug":"world-cup-2026-bukayo-saka-trains-alone-as-england-prepare-for-ghana-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/?p=4552","title":{"rendered":"World Cup 2026: Bukayo Saka trains alone as England prepare for Ghana game"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\"><b class=\"ssrcss-1xjjfut-BoldText e5tfeyi3\">Bukayo Saka was the only player not involved in group training as England continued preparations for their second match of the World Cup against Ghana.<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The Arsenal winger spent Saturday&#8217;s session indoors working on an individual programme as he continues to deal with an Achilles issue he has been managing since March.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">England meet Ghana in Boston on Tuesday (21:00 BST) with both sides <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/football\/teams\/england\/table\" class=\"ssrcss-18834jl-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\">having started Group L<\/a> with a victory.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Head coach Thomas Tuchel was on the training pitch at Swope Soccer Village in Kansas City with 25 of his 26 players as baseball team the KC Royals watched on alongside opponents St Louis Cardinals after the two had played on Friday night.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Saka came off the bench in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/football\/live\/cp36z3qpzrxt\" class=\"ssrcss-18834jl-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\">the 4-2 win over Croatia on Wednesday<\/a>and provided an assist to fellow substitute Marcus Rashford for England&#8217;s fourth.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Before the tournament, Tuchel said Saka would require managing through the opening stages because of what is understood to be an Achilles tendinitis issue.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Saka has insisted he was ready to play and was prepared to &#8220;gamble&#8221; on his fitness to help the team during the World Cup.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">However, Tuchel said the 24-year-old is unlikely to start until the final Group L game against Panama in New Jersey on Saturday, 27 June (22:00 BST).<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Bukayo is ready and will get more and more ready,&#8221; Tuchel said. &#8220;I think once we go to the last game of this group he will be ready.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Saka has been carrying the issue for some time, and while there was concern behind the scenes at Arsenal, they deemed the forward fit enough to start regularly during their triumphant title run-in.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta is often very guarded with regards to his players&#8217; injury concerns and has generally kept information about Saka&#8217;s condition in-house.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">But Tuchel&#8217;s admission the 24-year-old has to be managed through at least part of the World Cup has thrust the winger&#8217;s fitness into the limelight.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Tuchel&#8217;s latest comments appear to show that the German is protecting Saka, knowing the winger will likely be a crucial asset during the latter stages of the tournament &#8211; but could also start against Ghana if required.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bukayo Saka was the only player not involved in group training as England continued preparations for their second match of&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4553,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4552","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\/4552","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=4552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}