I’m having to manage my hamstring, reveals Rice
Struggling to find his England identity as junior partner shines — and too often left as an Nfl-style kicker, it’s time we saw...
DECLAN RICE has revealed he is managing a long-standing hamstring issue at the World Cup. The Arsenal midfielder was taken off in the 72nd minute of England’s 4-2 win over Croatia last Wednesday and there was concern over his condition. Rice trained with his team-mates over the weekend in preparation for tomorrow’s game against Ghana in Boston. His clubmate Bukayo Saka also trained yesterday, despite missing Saturday’s session as he manages an achilles issue.
Of his own fitness, Rice told ITV: ‘I was feeling a little bit of neural pain in my hamstring, which I was managing from after Christmas with Arsenal for a very long time. (The substitution) was a smart decision. That last 20 minutes is probably where you pick up the most (injuries).’ Rice, who has played 63 matches for club and country this season, added: ‘It’s an obscene amount of games, but what can we do about it? You can’t sit and complain. You’d put your body on the line to be able to play.’
DECLAN RICE bounced into the England media HQ wearing the smile of a man in good health and good spirits. The truth is, on the pitch, it has never quite looked as free and easy for his country.
Take the opening game against Croatia on Wednesday. Rice was a one-man, Nfl-style special team. His set-piece deliveries were fast and accurate and led to two of England’s goals in their 4-2 win.
But if they are to survive knockout matches against the very best, England will need the midfielder to land some blows in his position of strength — namely, midfield.
When Croatia scored twice in the first half during spells in which England had no control, Rice was a bystander. Head bowed, he looked beaten after the second, a player unable to restore order amid the chaos.
The frustration, for England and surely for Rice himself, is that he is good enough to be that player.
Assistant manager Anthony Barry gave a remarkably candid interview at half-time in which, of the team’s performance, he said: ‘It was confused and complicated. We went short when we should have gone long and long when we should have gone short.’
It felt to many there in Dallas as if the comments could be applied to Rice as much as anyone. On the ball, he played backwards too often. He became trapped in a pocket low on England’s left. During his 73 minutes, there were only two forward passes into the final third. Boss Thomas Tuchel later reflected on Rice’s ‘unusually loose balls’.
But it was off the ball where Rice was more out of sorts. He did not make a single tackle, and there were plenty to be made. He did not register an interception, clearance or block, either. He won only one of his three duels.
If the defence of Rice is that he is a master of the invisible work — and one former international made that very point this week — then this was the sort of invisibility England can ill afford.
If opponents are going to see more of the ball, and that will happen in the latter stages of the tournament, then they need to see more of Rice. Unseen work must leave a trace. Against Croatia, the game existed around him, not through him.
The possibility of Spain in the last 16 inevitably evokes memories of the Euro 2024 final in Berlin, albeit painful ones for England and Rice.
He struggled on the ball that night when under pressure and misplaced nine passes. There was just one tackle. England lost the midfield and, with it, the match.
But there is mitigation. The Rice we see come the summer has spent autumn, winter and spring running himself into the ground.
It is little wonder that the tank can look empty when the mileage is so high. The dynamism that drove Arsenal to a Premier League title is left scattered over the battlefields of north London, Manchester and Merseyside.
He has, he revealed, been managing neural pain in his hamstring since Christmas and has played ‘an obscene amount of games’. That number was 63 for club and country this season.
But fatigue, mental or muscular, is not the only reason Rice looked uncomfortable in the opener.
Tuchel uses him as a No 8 in a midfield two, with Elliot Anderson the manager’s pick as the deeper-lying No 6. At Arsenal,
Rice plays as part of a three, invariably on the left.
To revisit Barry’s ‘confused’ observation, Rice’s touch map against Croatia showed his involvement to be almost exclusively left-sided.
Whether habit or instruction, there was little presence in the central attacking spaces where a midfielder of his quality should exert influence.
At the request of Tuchel (right), England play through Anderson. He has become the primary reference point. At times, it feels as if Rice is struggling for identity within the system. It is no surprise he comes alive when a deadball awaits and the kicker is kingpin.
He will stay in the side, of course, and so he should. His pedigree, character and deliveries are too good to contemplate anything else. He has started England’s last 20 tournament matches. Yet, that doubt remains of a vulnerability in England’s midfield when they meet, as they will, a team of technical excellence at this World Cup.
It was put to Rice that England will be getting a better version of himself this summer, given his influence for Arsenal this season.
The theory was sound. Rice’s pause, and his answer, suggest that he knows, in practice, it is not that simple.
‘I’d like to think so,’ he told ITV. ‘But it’s still on me on the day to go out there and perform. And that’s the thing with football, you go into a game and you always hope that the best version of you can turn up.
‘But you’re a bit like a tennis player or a golfer. Sometimes you have your game, sometimes you don’t. You’re constantly trying to find your best levels. I’ve managed to do that for a lot of periods through this season and obviously I want to bring that into the World Cup.’
Sticking with theory, he and Anderson should be one of the best midfield duos at this tournament.
Rice was a British-high £105million when he joined Arsenal from West Ham in 2023, and Anderson is about to inherit that tag at Manchester City. But combining their value with England remains a work in progress.
‘I think he (Anderson) is exactly what we need,’ said Rice. ‘He suits how Tuchel wants to play perfectly. I love playing with him. We are similar profiles in a way, but we bounce off each other. We speak about our connections, how we want to play with each other.
‘Even in training, we’re building small little things.’
But control against better opposition?
‘In big games you want to control the ball, for sure, but there’s always spells in matches when you don’t,’ said Rice. ‘You’ve got to be smart in all phases of play.’
And Rice is smart — smart enough to know that he is so much more than a designated kicker. The challenge is to bring that quality onto the field.
Corners can win matches, but control is what is needed to win a tournament.