England captain Harry Kane is ready to start his third match in seven days, but manager Thomas Tuchel has warned that the demanding Nations League schedule is increasing the risk of injury.
Kane has won 123 England caps and is expected to play against Croatia. He is aiming to draw level with Peter Shilton’s record of 125 appearances during this international camp, with England due to face the Czech Republic on Tuesday.
The present schedule will see England play four matches in 11 days, a run Tuchel believes places an additional strain on players beyond the matches themselves.
Premier League clubs have already seen players suffer injuries during the extended international window, while Nico O’Reilly has returned home after being ruled out.
“Harry wants to play and he will,” said Tuchel. “The players just want to go again because they have a three-day turnaround in between matches.”
Tuchel said the intensity of each game could vary significantly, meaning the physical demands were not always comparable.
“A match can be so different – the match against Spain was the highest intensity in the output of some players,” he added. “The match against ten men was a totally different story. We took care of some players after 70 minutes. It becomes a totally different story. So Harry is good to go.”
Kane, who plays for Bayern Munich, has described himself as “good to go” for the Croatia fixture.
Tuchel said the risk of injury was also affected by the disruption caused by international football, including travel and changes to training routines.
“But if there was not an international break, it would be maybe Champions League or Cup,” he said. “I feel like the more I think about it, it’s the different position. It’s the travelling. It’s different training. It’s different training times that the players are used to.”
The England manager argued that the short gap between matches was more significant than the number of games alone.
“I think this increases the risk more than the pure match itself because the matches would have come anyway,” said Tuchel. “If you have in club football a Saturday-Tuesday, it’s very unlikely that you have another Saturday-Tuesday.
“It’s very likely that you have Saturday-Wednesday, and it just makes a big difference. So now we have another turnaround with only two matches. A Wednesday would decrease the risk of injury dramatically.”
Tuchel added: “For me it’s not the matches in itself, but the different style of match, different position, different training, lots of travelling in between that’s maybe increasing this risk.”
