It appears to be a long road back for Cole Palmer if he is going to play for England again under Thomas Tuchel.

The England manager seemed to say all the right things after omitting Palmer from his latest squad for the final two Nations League group ties. “Not only did he miss last camp, he missed an excellent camp, so he missed out and the consequence is that we stick to the group that were excellent and that’s the situation,” Tuchel said by way of explanation. Sounds fair enough.

Except this argument immediately falls down. Tuchel called up 19-year-old Josh King and 21-year-old Jobe Bellingham. Neither was in the last squad. Neither has been included before, although King did train with England in the United States before the World Cup. So, Tuchel has not decided to “stick to the group”. He has decided to overlook Palmer for two new players who can fulfil the same role, even if Tuchel sees King as an option on the wing and Jobe Bellingham as a “No 8”.

Is it warranted? Yes, probably. Although, there would be merit in including Palmer to see whether he wants to play for England under Tuchel. Or whether there is a bigger issue here. Tuchel will not pick another squad until March.

Palmer withdrew from the last squad after playing with “discomfort and pain”. But Tuchel took offence at the suggestion that he might ask the Chelsea midfielder to come along and be part of the group and do his rehab work with them. Something that he was pleased Jude Bellingham did in the past.

What would have been lost in seeing how Palmer behaved and whether he was fully committed throughout the camp which this time lasts nine days after the last one stretched to 17?

Instead Tuchel stuck to his line that Palmer “misses too many opportunities”. He is not talking about chances to score – he means chances to play for his country, of showing that commitment.

“It’s not personal and we will never assume that he is not desperate to come and play,” Tuchel said, adding: “But the competition is on. It’s about the ones who walk the walk and come to camp.”

The problem is it does look personal. Tuchel is German and his English – however excellent it is – is not his first language. But how can he say we should not assume Palmer is not “desperate” to be involved and then basically accuse him of not wanting to “walk the walk”?

For whatever reason it is true that Palmer has not been available for England often enough. Palmer has played only three times for England in the past two years with his most recent appearance coming in March’s 1-0 home defeat by Japan. That is extraordinary.

Is Tuchel in such a strong position with such strong options that he can overlook him?

Despite his protestations, it seems like this goes back to Tuchel’s decision to leave Palmer out of last summer’s World Cup squad. Reasoning that England had too many No 10s, Tuchel ditched Palmer, Phil Foden and Morgan Gibbs-White.

The decision affected Palmer and as that tournament played out it proved that Tuchel got it wrong with his squad. There were too many similarly physical and athletic players and not enough technical ones. His complaint that England players do not possess the “DNA” to keep the ball, after semi-final defeat by Argentina, was all the more maddening for that.

There is no doubt that Jude Bellingham is the man in possession of the role just behind Harry Kane that Palmer prefers. Next in line is Morgan Rogers, a Tuchel favourite who is close to both Palmer and Bellingham, then Gibbs-White.

Tuchel cannot call on the injured Bukayo Saka but retains Eberechi Eze whose form – for Arsenal or England – does not suggest he should be preferred to Palmer.

It is a far cry from the last European Championship when Palmer scored England’s equaliser in the final and seemed to have such a rich international future.

It is not over for him. Palmer is 24. He is outrageously talented and has the ability and playing style which seems ideally suited to international football. He should take heart from the experience of Trent Alexander-Arnold, overlooked by Tuchel for so long, that things can change. If he wants them to change, that is.

Given that England took medical soundings from Chelsea about his availability, it seems that Palmer was close this time. But until he is included – or explains himself – we will never really know how he feels about playing for England and, more importantly, playing for England under Tuchel. It does feel profoundly sad that he is not being selected, whatever the reason.