Thomas Tuchel insisted England took zero risk with Alex Scott after the midfielder’s withdrawal with a thigh injury left Bournemouth unhappy over his treatment.

Scott excelled during the 7-0 win over Croatia in the Nations League on Saturday but will play no further part in this international break and could be out for two months after exacerbating a muscle issue during his full debut for the national team.

The frustration for Bournemouth is that the 23-year-old played through the pain after feeling discomfort before facing Croatia. Scott, who was in line to start again when England host Czechia in their fourth and final game of this camp on Tuesday, made way for James Garner after 70 minutes in Rijeka and underwent tests on the problem on Sunday.

Bournemouth, who are also without the French forward Eli Junior Kroupi, face being without one of their most important players as they enter a busy part of the season. They are looking for their first win in the Premier League and are in the Europa League. But Tuchel is adamant that England, who have also lost the Arsenal defender Ezri Konsa to a quad injury, followed the proper medical procedure with Scott.

“With Alex, it’s a strange one,” the head coach said. “I’m very sad about it. He trained in full before Croatia, did extra work after the training sessions. We knew he was in treatment but there were only green lights from him and the medics.

“When we were aware there was slight discomfort during the match and asked if he wanted to come off he said no. After the match, he said he could have played 90 minutes and didn’t feel an injury. Even before the scan he didn’t feel injured so it’s a strange one. There was zero risk taken from our side. On a human level, I feel bad that he has not the next cap tomorrow.”

Asked if he had a clear conscience, Tuchel said: “Yeah, 100%. I would not have taken any risk.”

Scott’s determination to represent his country was underlined by his decision to stay with the squad after the recent death of his grandfather. The former Bristol City midfielder, who remains a key target for Chelsea, made his debut when he came on during last week’s win over Czechia in Prague. He earned a starting place against Croatia and reprised his excellent partnership with Elliot Anderson from last year’s Under-21 European Championship.

Scott is unlikely to be unavailable when England face Croatia and Spain in their final two games in Nations League Group A3 next month. It is a headache for Tuchel after Scott emerged as competition for Declan Rice during the past fortnight. However the German maintained that England had not let Bournemouth down.

“The medical and physical department is in constant contact,” he said. “We are sharing information and this is a totally open process. We are not on the phone to clubs asking for advice because then it would be an empty camp.”

Tuchel has questioned Fifa’s decision to extend this international window, saying the format is testing from a physical perspective because of the amount of travel and training time after the 48-team World Cup. England last week lost the Manchester City left-back Nico O’Reilly, whose place has been taken by Rico Lewis.

Rice and Kobbie Mainoo withdrew at the start of this camp, leaving Tuchel with Anderson, Garner and Myles Lewis-Skelly as his midfield options against Czechia. England are second in their group, well placed to make March’s two-leg quarter-finals. A major talking point against Czechia will be Harry Kane equalling Peter Shilton’s record of 125 England men’s appearances.

“I’m not sure I have any more words,” Tuchel said of the England captain. “He’s on the shortlist for the Ballon d’Or. We’ve spoken so often about him and I try to find new words which then make no sense.

“Everything he does, he does it on the highest level. Since he took this major role for Bayern Munich, he found a new level. It’s the highest level, on and off the pitch.”

Trevoh Chalobah is likely to replace Konsa. Tuchel has not decided how heavily to rotate. He said that Trent Alexander-Arnold had a chance to replace Jarell Quansah at right-back.