Declan Rice Ready for New Season Despite Workload Concerns
Declan Rice insists he is ready to go again. No excuses, no complaints, no talk of burnout.
The Arsenal midfielder has brushed aside concerns over his workload after a gruelling year that ended with England’s run to the World Cup semi-finals and a tally of 69 games for club and country.
For some, that number screams overload. Rice sees it differently.
“I think for the last six seasons, even since my West Ham days when it was in Europe, I've played 60 plus every season,” he said. “So I think it is sustainable because I've shown that I can do it.”
This isn’t bravado. It’s a statement of intent from a player who has become central to everything Arsenal and England want to be. He knows the demands. He’s lived them.
Rice shrugs off fatigue fears
Rice did show signs of fatigue with England at the World Cup, arriving off the back of a Premier League campaign that went to the wire and a Champions League run that carried Arsenal all the way to the final. The schedule was relentless. The expectation even more so.
Yet after a rare spell of complete rest in the summer, he believes he is better armed to absorb another long season.
“It's just about maintaining it, maintaining the level and the consistency of the performances,” he said. “For me, that's the main thing, showing up every week, giving a good account of myself and helping the team win. I've been lucky enough to be able to do that. So I'm really hungry to be able to do that again this season.”
That hunger has already surfaced in Europe. Arsenal opened the league phase of their Champions League campaign with a tight 1-0 win over Napoli, sealed by a Martin Odegaard strike. It was the kind of game that leans heavily on players like Rice: high tempo, fine margins, no room for mental drift.
He came through it looking sharp, and, crucially, feeling free of the issue that had dogged him in the summer.
World Cup frustration and a lingering niggle
Rice doesn’t hide from the reality of what he went through at the World Cup under Thomas Tuchel. The heat, the schedule, the physical strain of another long club season all bit hard.
“Yes, it was tough,” he admitted when asked about his fitness during the tournament. “I think everyone knew I had an issue with a neural hamstring. But also on the top of the Premier League season, which was so demanding, the Champions League, to then play a World Cup in that heat really does take its toll.”
He is a player who prides himself on intensity. When that slips, even slightly, it grates.
“I'm a player that goes on the pitch, wants to be fresh and give 100 per cent every time I put on an England shirt.
“And yes, there were stages where I felt really, really good and stages where I didn't feel I was good. And obviously I had the illness going into the Norway game, which didn't really help. So there were a few things that frustrated me, just with myself, just not feeling 100 per cent. But there were games where I felt really good, like Congo.”
The picture is clear: a player pushing through, managing his body on the fly, trying to hold his standards while fighting a problem that simply wouldn’t clear.
So he did the one thing modern footballers rarely allow themselves.
“In the summer, I just took a complete time off.”
No half-measures. No rushed return. A full reset.
Now, back at the heart of Arsenal’s midfield and already influencing another Champions League campaign, Rice is betting that the break, not the burden, will define his season.
