{"id":291405,"date":"2023-10-06T08:54:09","date_gmt":"2023-10-06T08:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/?p=291405"},"modified":"2023-10-06T08:54:09","modified_gmt":"2023-10-06T08:54:09","slug":"southgate-issues-promise-to-arsenal-and-mikel-arteta-over-bukayo-saka-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/soccer\/southgate-issues-promise-to-arsenal-and-mikel-arteta-over-bukayo-saka-injury\/","title":{"rendered":"Southgate issues promise to Arsenal and Mikel Arteta over Bukayo Saka injury"},"content":{"rendered":"
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England manager Gareth Southgate insists he will take no risks with Bukayo Saka\u2019s fitness during the upcoming international break.<\/p>\n
Arsenal news, exclusives and analysis<\/p>\n
Saka is a doubt for Arsenal\u2019s Premier League clash with Manchester City this weekend after he was forced off in the first half of the Gunners\u2019 2-1 defeat to Lens in the Champions League on Tuesday evening.<\/p>\n
The 22-year-old has been hampered by an Achilles injury since the end of last season, while Mikel Arteta has been accused of over-playing the winger after he was substituted late on in the 4-0 win against Bournemouth last weekend.<\/p>\n
Saka has been included in England\u2019s squad for their friendly against Australia and the Euro 2024 qualifier against Italy later this month, but Southgate is adamant that he will take no chances with the winger\u2019s injury concerns.<\/p>\n
\u2018I can only go via what Mikel has said about the last few games,\u2019 said Southgate.<\/p>\n
\u2018He is in contention for the weekend so we\u2019ve obviously got a very important qualifier. We look after the players as well as any country.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u2018There\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
\u2018When 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.<\/p>\n
\u2018We only have 10 matches a year. And there\u2019s been times when\u2026 Bukayo, for example, we haven\u2019t always played. But there are certain key games where, if it\u2019s possible to have your best players, then you do want to have them.<\/p>\n
\u2018So we\u2019ve got that responsibility of qualifying for the country but, I\u2019ve been a player. I\u2019ve never ever taken a risk on a player\u2019s physical wellbeing. And nor would I.\u2019<\/p>\n
For more stories like this,\u00a0check our sport page<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Follow Metro Sport for the latest news on Facebook,\u00a0<\/strong>Twitter\u00a0and\u00a0Instagram<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Source: Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" England manager Gareth Southgate insists he will take no risks with Bukayo Saka\u2019s fitness during the upcoming international break. Arsenal news, exclusives and analysis Saka […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":291404,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n