Sawt Falasteen - Bellingham's omission from England squad nothing personal, says Tuchel

The 22-year-old missed September's wins against Andorra and Serbia following shoulder surgery and has since played four games for Real Madrid, starting just one.

Bellingham is again absent from this month's double-header -- a friendly against Wales at Wembley next Thursday followed by a World Cup qualifier in Riga against Latvia five days later.

Other notable absentees are Jack Grealish and Phil Foden, who have both impressed for their clubs this season.

"He's a very special player and for special players there can be special rules, I get this," Tuchel said, referring to Bellingham, this week named as England men's player of the year for 2024/25.

"But for this camp we decided that we stick with our straightforward decision to invite the same team. That applies also for Jude, he deserves always to be in camp.

"I think on top of it there's the situation that he has not fully gathered rhythm yet at Real Madrid. He's back in the team, he hasn't finished one full match until now, he has only started one match."

Tuchel added that the midfielder had been eager to play.

"He wanted to be called up, we had a phone call, there was no issue from that side," he said.

Asked if there was any problem between him and Bellingham, Tuchel added: "No, there is also no problem between me and Phil Foden, there is also no problem between me and Jack Grealish. Very special players.

"There is no problem at all, there is no personal problem."

The German was asked about the absences of Grealish and Foden but emphasised his desire to stick with the players who featured last month.

"Keep on pushing," he said. "It is a decision for this camp, it was the best camp in terms of team spirit and team work, this was the best camp so far," Tuchel said.

"We decided to invite the same group of players to make more stable what we built on."

Arsenal forward Bukayo Saka has returned after missing September's internationals with a hamstring issue, but Cole Palmer, Noni Madueke and Tino Livramento are ruled out with injury.

England beat Andorra 2-0 and hammered Serbia 5-0 in last month's World Cup qualifying games to make it five wins out of five in their group.

S.Barghouti--SF-PST