"The recommendation is that he does not go," Chelsea head coach Thomas Tuchel said rather emphatically in the bowels of the Riverside Stadium on Saturday. "There is no doubt about it.
"He is still in individual training and needs one more week of rehabilitation. I think we can provide this much better – it is not the job of the national team."
The player in question was Reece James, who has this season proved himself one of European football's finest wing-backs. The academy graduate had missed Chelsea's previous three matches due to a muscular issue yet had still been named in the England squad for their forthcoming friendlies against Switzerland and Ivory Coast.
