England manager Thomas Tuchel has moved to allay injury fears over Ezri Konsa after the Arsenal defender withdrew from the squad.
Konsa played the full 90 minutes against both Spain and Croatia, but sat out the win over Czech Republic in between due to an ongoing fitness concern. The defender is now set to return to the Gunners with what Standard Sport understands is a dead leg.
Tuchel defends decision to play Konsa
Tuchel, who has also seen Alex Scott withdraw from the camp with a far more serious injury, has defended himself and his England staff, insisting both Konsa and the medical team had cleared the Gunners defender to play.
“Ezri felt discomfort when he came into camp, played with it against Spain and it got a bit worse so he stayed in camp and tried everything for the match against Czechia and it came too soon,” Tuchel told reporters.
“He tried everything for the game in Croatia, got the green light and came through all the training sessions so was ready to play.
Konsa suffers fresh blow
“Unfortunately, he got another hit on the quad and that caused a light trauma and we decided not to let him play through this pain, so he left camp to get treatment for both his issues now. I think nothing major but not worth the risk taking.”
On Scott, Tuchel added: “With Alex, it's a strange one, I'm very sad about it. He trained in full before Croatia, did extra work after the training sessions, we knew he was in treatment but there were only green lights from him and the medics.
“When we were aware there was slight discomfort during the match and asked if he wanted to come off he said no. After the match, he said he could have played 90 minutes and didn't feel an injury.
“Even before the scan he didn't feel injured so it's a strange one. There was zero risk taken from our side.”
