Arsenal star and Ballon d’Or candidate Declan Rice is a crucial player for the England national team at the base of the midfield, just as he is for the Gunners, but the fans of the Premier League champions now have reason to worry.
England national team manager Thomas Tuchel, who used to manage rivals Chelsea to Champions League success, has drawn the ire of the supporters after revealing that Rice is a ton of pain right now.
Tuchel said of Rice, via afcstuff, “I asked him. He said, ‘I can do it for the team, but I am in terrible pain’. When Declan tells you he is in terrible pain, then you know he cannot take it anymore. There is no injury, it’s more neural pain.”
Arsenal fans will have questions about what exactly Thomas Tuchel means by Declan Rice being in “neural pain”, but after a grueling season in which Mikel Arteta and the club were already worried about running the superstar defensive midfielder into the ground, Gunners fans won’t like hearing this from the national team coach.
Rice needs rest, and as important as he is to England, it does nobody any good if he is playing through immense pain or injury, and the last thing Arsenal want is for him to come back from the World Cup broken down already before the title defense begins.
Joe Soriano is the editor of The Trivela Effect and a FanSided Hall of Famer who has covered world football since 2010. He’s led top digital communities like The Real Champs (Real Madrid) and has run sites covering Tottenham, Liverpool, Juventus, and Schalke. He also helped manage NFL Spin Zone and Daily DDT, covering the NFL and pro wrestling.