Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta is set to butt heads with the English FA after ruling winger Bukayo Saka out of international duty.
Despite claiming Saka was “in contention” for Sunday’s victory over Manchester City, Arteta left the 22-year-old at home and later insisted Saka would not be able to join up with the England squad either.
“No, he will not make it,” Arteta said. “He has not trained for a single session. He is not available to play football at the moment.”
Nevertheless, the Evening Standard state that the FA still expect Saka to report for international duty on Monday, where they plan to conduct their own medical checks on the Arsenal winger.
England face Australia in a friendly on Friday and will then switch their focus to a European qualifier against Italy the following Tuesday.
Ahead of the games, England manager Gareth Southgate admitted he did not want to take any risks with Saka’s fitness.
“I can only go via what Mikel has said about the last few games,” Southgate said. “We look after the players as well as any country. There’s always a focus on our players because they are playing their club football, in the main, in England and then we are playing here as well.
“Whereas all the other countries call the players that are playing in the Premier League and nobody looks at how they look after them and how they train them. When we have really good dialogue with all of their clubs, I think they pretty much all would agree that we probably give better feedback than every other nation.
“They have trust in us that we make decisions that are right for the long term whenever we can. We only have ten matches a year. And there’s been times when Bukayo, for example, we haven’t always played.
“But there are certain key games where, if it’s possible to have your best players, then you do want to have them.
“So we’ve got that responsibility of qualifying for the country but I’ve been a player, I’ve never ever taken a risk on a player’s physical wellbeing. And nor would I.”
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