Bukayo Saka has reported for England duty despite Mikel Arteta saying yesterday that the winger is unavailable "to play football at the moment".
The Arsenal manager claimed the 22-year-old would not report for international duty ahead of England's upcoming fixtures against Australia and Italy.
However, despite seemingly being ruled out of contention, Saka was pictured arriving at St George's Park on Monday.
Arteta said after Arsenal's 1-0 victory over Manchester City: “No, he (Saka) will not make it. He has not trained for a single session. He is not available to play football at the moment.”
England, however, are entitled to have Saka assessed by their own medical staff. It remains to be seen whether the attacker is fit to play and whether he stays with the squad if he's not.
In June, Real Madrid midfielder Jude Bellingham was called up for England's Euro 2024 qualifiers against North Macedonia and Malta but did not feature due to a knee injury. At the time, the FA said that he would "spend time at the National Football Centre to continue his rehabilitation".
England manager Gareth Southgate said on Saka last week after including him in his England squad: “He is still being assessed so everyone will monitor everything.
“I can only go via what Mikel (Arteta) has said about the last few games. He is in contention for the weekend so we’ve obviously got a very important qualifier.
“They have trust in us that we make decisions that are right for the long-term whenever we can. We only have 10 matches a year. And there’s been times when Bukayo, for example, we haven’t always played.
“But there are certain key games where if it’s possible to have your best players then you do want to have them. So we’ve got that responsibility of qualifying for the country but I’ve been a player. I’ve never ever taken a risk on a player’s physical well-being. And nor would I.”
England play Australia on October 13 followed by a Euro 2024 qualifier against Italy four days later.
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