Five players have withdrawn from the England squad for this month’s Nations League fixtures, and the two that matter most now carry flags in Fantasy Premier League. Cole Palmer is owned by 26 per cent of managers, Declan Rice by 12. Before you start reshaping your squad: the Gameweek 6 deadline is eighteen days away.
What happened
Thomas Tuchel lost five players ahead of the camp: Palmer, Rice, Marcus Rashford, Kobbie Mainoo and Tino Livramento. Palmer is reported to have a small muscular problem. Rice — who played the full 90 minutes in Arsenal’s 0:3 defeat at Brighton on Saturday — appears to be a case of load management: he has racked up 69 appearances for club and country through to the end of the World Cup.
Morgan Gibbs-White and Everton’s James Garner were called up in their place. England face Spain, Czechia and Croatia.
How it looks in the game
The official FPL data flagged all five yesterday. This is where it stands today:
| Player | Club | Ownership | Flag | Our rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Palmer | Chelsea | 26.3% | muscular injury, 75% | 86 — buy |
| Rice | Arsenal | 12.0% | injury, 75% | 87 — buy |
| Mainoo | Man Utd | 1.6% | injury, 75% | — |
| Rashford | Man Utd | 1.5% | injury, 75% | — |
| Livramento | Newcastle | 0.1% | injury, 75% | — |
So realistically it comes down to the first two. Both are rated highly by our model and both still carry a “buy” verdict — because a 75 per cent flag is the mildest signal this game has.
Why this is not a reason to transfer
The Gameweek 6 deadline falls on Saturday 10 October at 11:00 UK time. That is eighteen days. A flag applied three weeks out tells you a player did not travel for international duty — not whether he will start a match that is still a fortnight beyond that.
If anything, the break helps both clubs here. Palmer and Rice stay put, skip the flights and get three weeks to recover. The same injury appearing on the Thursday before a gameweek would be a problem. Right now it is information.
The same logic applies to João Pedro, still flagged at 75 per cent with a knee problem and still the most-owned forward in the game at 66 per cent. If the reports of a three-and-a-half week lay-off were accurate, he is back exactly for Gameweek 6. Check him again in early October, not today.
The other side: who picks up extra matches
This gets discussed less often and often matters more for FPL. Five withdrawals mean somebody else got the call — and instead of resting, will play two extra fixtures.
That somebody is Gibbs-White (15.7 per cent ownership, rated 88 by our model) and Everton’s Garner. This is the same Gibbs-White we flagged before Gameweek 5 as the cheaper alternative to Haaland — and who then returned two points. Now he adds international minutes in the middle of a three-week break. When you plan your October squad, that is a real factor no table shows you.
What to do today
Nothing. Genuinely. With eighteen days to the deadline, any transfer made on the back of today’s flags is a transfer made blind — and during an international break the injury list usually grows rather than shrinks.
What is worth doing instead:
- Write down the date: Saturday 10 October, 11:00 UK. The deadline is earlier than usual because the first match kicks off at 12:30.
- If a wildcard is on your mind, this is the moment to work it out calmly — we have a separate piece on when to play it.
- Come back to the Injury Centre in early October — it updates automatically every hour.
One more thing: the game closed Gameweek 5 overnight, and the final average is 48 points, not the 44 we reported on Sunday. It is still the weakest gameweek of the season — the detail and our league table are in the Gameweek 5 review.
Update (Wednesday 23 September)
A further day of reporting sharpens the reasons behind the withdrawals. With Rice it is not purely about rest: according to Sports Mole he has been dealing with a long-term hamstring problem, and the break is meant to be a recovery period. If you own him, that is a meaningful difference — rotation ahead of a friendly is not the same as an issue that has dragged on for weeks. He did play the full 90 minutes in Arsenal’s defeat on Saturday, but he is worth checking separately in October.
The rest of the five is clearer too: Rashford and Mainoo picked up their injuries in Manchester United’s 1:1 draw with Fulham on Sunday, and for Livramento this is a ninth separate injury since joining Newcastle in 2023. For Palmer, reports still point to a small muscular issue with no return date attached.
Three new flags have appeared since yesterday, all on low-owned players: Šeško (Man Utd, shin injury, 75 per cent), Dedić (Newcastle, no return date) and Dunk (Brighton, neck injury, 75 per cent).
One thing to keep in mind for October: this international window is unusually long — it runs from 24 September to 6 October and contains four matches. Players return to their clubs three or four days before the Gameweek 6 deadline. With a calendar like that the flag list tends to grow late, so check your squad on 8 or 9 October rather than on the Saturday morning.
The England withdrawals are based on media reports from 21 September; flags and ownership were read from the official Fantasy Premier League API on 22 September. Ratings come from our own AI model. We are not affiliated with the Premier League or Fantasy Premier League.