Thomas Tuchel has said Cole Palmer is absent for "way too many camps with injuries" and suggested the Chelsea midfielder will not feature for England due to "pain and discomfort" rather than load management.
Palmer was initially selected for England's upcoming quartet of Nations League matches -- starting with Saturday's visit of world champions Spain -- but later withdrew alongside Declan Rice, Kobbie Mainoo, Marcus Rashford and Tino Livramento.
The 24-year-old was left out of this summer's World Cup squad and has only made three international appearances since Tuchel took charge of England at the beginning of 2025.
Palmer has struggled with persistent injury problems and joked last week that "I had one leg for 10 months" as he battled a groin issue.
But Tuchel said on Friday: "For sure it's a missed opportunity [for Palmer]. It's another missed opportunity. He misses too many opportunities, and I don't blame him for it. It's just the fact. He misses way too many camps with injuries and I only want to rely on what I personally witness and what I see within my team, and for that you have to be in camp.
"If you're not in camp, there's a next level to impress that you cannot achieve because you only can do it when you're actually with me on the pitch and with us on the pitch so, yeah, it is a missed opportunity.
"My understanding is that he plays with discomfort and pain, and he cannot compete on the highest level with discomfort and pain, so he withdrew and informed us and Chelsea informed us. That is my that is my understanding."
Tuchel rejected the idea that England's team spirit -- the 'brotherhood' as he has dubbed it -- would not be affected by the withdrawals.
"We are not managing load," he continued.
"When I was in in club football, I used the term of an 'international break.' This is when you hear it on the other side a totally different picture.
"This is not an 'international break,' and I think that's what we created now. It's a competitive environment, but it's also an environment where the players love to be at when they walk through the door.
"Where they love to train with each other, be with each other. That's what togetherness and brotherhood looks like, and that's what we created latest from last September in qualification.
"We will never compromise on that and we will never let this creep in that that we have the feeling that players don't want to come. It's fair enough, but we focus on the guys who absolutely want to play for England."
Tuchel took aim at the new international calendar, which has changed from the three autumn international windows across September, October and November to a longer three-week spell straddling the two months which features four games in just 11 days.
"No, I am not in favour of it," he said. "After a long tournament, to have another long period together is very demanding emotionally and physically for the players.
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"I think the players would have loved three short windows. I really struggle. I can hardly think of a period in club football where you have matches and a turnaround like we have now. We have Saturday-Tuesday and then another Saturday-Tuesday, so only two days twice in between each game.
"That sounds just too condensed if you have two-and-a-half weeks together, why is this twice happening with flights and different countries that we have to play in? It does not feel 100% right, I have to say. But it is what it is. We have this window and we have used the time for some very good training sessions so far, and we want to add one more to that.
"Listen, it is also the first time for me doing a camp after a major tournament and, as I said, there can be a bit of a mix of emotions. We have not seen each other since the tournament and there is a new competition going on, so there are a lot of mixed emotions and a lot of different influences in this camp.
"But the longer it goes on, the more I feel the focus is coming back, and playing against the reigning world champions tomorrow will help."
England host Spain before travelling to Czechia and then Croatia before a home game against Czechia on Oct. 6 and Tuchel admitted the risk of injuries has increased.
"This cannot be right for the players after they struggled in having a proper preseason because they played the tournament until the very last day and struggled to decompress and then have no pre-season, basically to start after one week or 10 days, they are back in competitive football," he said.
"This is possible but this is normally what comes and bites you and what comes for you in exactly these moments, in November, December, January. It comes for you when you don't have a proper build-up and an international window with two days in between matches twice, I'm not sure I like that.
"I watched yesterday a match between Netherlands and Germany and I think after 36 minutes there were already three players injured. Per se, it is not a problem to play the match on Saturday or for them to play it yesterday. I think more, it is a different load, different environment, different pitches, different training exercises that increases the risk a little bit for the players, a different style of play than for their clubs, different position for some players.
"But we are always on top of the data, we always take care of the players, player priority comes first 100%. On the other hand, these players we have can play four matches in this period of time, it is what they will do with their clubs after this window so I also don't see why we would manage their minutes for the clubs. We have our own priorities.
"The players want to win these matches. We want to win and qualify for the quarterfinals of the Nations League. We will take care, we will be responsible but we have our own motives and our own goals to reach."
