Thomas Tuchel has explained Ezri Konsa’s injury situation, revealing that the player’s eventual withdrawal from England duty was due to a knock in the Croatia game.
England confirmed the withdrawal of Ezri Konsa from the September-October break on Monday, but there was little explanation of the decision at the time.
The assumption was that Konsa had aggravated the injury issue that saw him drop to the bench earlier in the break.
Thomas Tuchel has now confirmed that whilst the defender is still carrying that initial problem, his withdrawal was more to do with a minor impact injury picked up in the Croatia match.
“Ezri felt discomfort when he came into camp, played with discomfort against Spain, and it got a bit worse,” Tuchel revealed in his press conference. “He stayed in camp and tried everything for the match in Czechia that came too soon.
“He tried everything for the match in Croatia and gave a green light, finished all of the training sessions in between and was ready to play.
“Unfortunately, he got another hit on the quad and that caused a light trauma and we decided to not let him play through this pain and discomfort again, so he left camp to get treatment for both his issues.
“I think nothing major, but not worth the risk taking. We were happy with the attitude that he showed to stay in camp and be ready for Croatia and have a good match…he picked up another one in the match, but from a knock, not a muscle injury or something.”
The fact that Tuchel is playing down the new issue as ‘nothing major’ and ‘not a muscle injury’ is encouraging, and with any luck, Konsa may still be available to feature for Arsenal in their game against Leeds United on Saturday.
The Gunners are already without William Saliba at the moment, but Cristhian Mosquera is closing in on a comeback.
Having both Konsa and Mosquera available would be ideal, allowing them to offer each other rests until Saliba returns. Whether that’s realistic or not remains to be seen.
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