Jude Bellingham didn’t play a single minute for England during the recent international break – Real Madrid are furious considering their star player was just recovering from injury
Jude Bellingham was in England camp this month
Real Madrid are frustrated with the English side’s response to Jude Bellingham after calling him into camp, but he has remained on the bench for both matches during the international break.
The Three Lions were called up for friendly matches at Wembley, first against Uruguay and then against Japan. They suffered a shock loss to Japan on Tuesday after drawing with the South American country.
Manager Thomas Tuchel named an expanded 35-man squad for the two games to allow for more players to be considered, and Bellingham was one of the key players included. Bellingham injured his hamstring in early February but is returning to full fitness and only made a brief cameo off the bench in Real’s game against Atletico Madrid two weeks ago.
Despite this, he returned to his home country to attend the England camp, but failed to play a single minute. Marca reported that Real felt it was a “pointless trip” for the player to return to England only to sit on the bench and take part in training.
Los Blancos are in the race for the La Liga title, trailing Barcelona by four points. They are also preparing for a heavyweight showdown with Bayern Munich in the Champions League and will be hoping Bellingham will be firing on all cylinders.
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Tuchel explained his decision to overlook the midfielder, who is by no means guaranteed to start in the England team, and admitted it was “too risky” to play Bellingham. “I think it’s too much of a risk, so he (Bellingham) is inclined not to play,” he told BBC Radio 5 Live.
“We all benefited by him coming in. He was good in training, but he was coming in as a neutral player. He wasn’t 100 percent in training. So he looked very, very good, but we’re still holding him back so we don’t take any risks.”
The midfielder has just returned from an injury layoff.
“This injury is a muscle strain and it’s a very unique injury. You never want to get hurt again at this point in the season. And he was great to be in camp as well. He was great, but the trend is he won’t play.”
Madrid believe Tuchel’s decision to downplay Bellingham “did little to help” the midfielder for the upcoming games. Meanwhile, Bellingham’s club teammates. Trent Alexander-Arnold was given extra rest after being abruptly left out of Tuchel’s squad, but there was a real chance he would miss out on the World Cup.
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