Bukayo Saka continues to play through the pain of an achilles injury, according to the England manager, Thomas Tuchel, and must be managed carefully as the start of the World Cup looms large.

The Arsenal winger joined up with the England squad in West Palm Beach on Saturday after being given an extra week off after his involvement in the Champions League final against Paris Saint-Germain. Tuchel gave a similar break to his other Arsenal players Declan Rice, Eberechi Eze and Noni Madueke.

But while Tuchel said those three were at 100% fitness, the picture is less encouraging for Saka, who was substituted in the 83rd minute of the PSG game, which Arsenal lost on penalties. It would normally be unthinkable for Saka not to play all of such a showpiece.

Tuchel said in March, after Saka and Rice were forced to withdraw from the friendly against Japan, that they were pushing through at 70% and had been feeling discomfort for “quite a while”. While Rice is now better, Saka is still struggling.

“Declan is on 100% and Bukayo is still getting there, playing through discomfort at the end of the season … obviously managing it and playing at a high level but still not on his 100%,” Tuchel said. “He is the one we are building and taking care of in training. Declan is 100%, Ebs is 100%, Noni is 100%.

“Bukayo is just not there yet. Some things are missing … consecutive trainings. They took very good care of him [at Arsenal] and were very aware of it and we will do a little bit the same. He is at the moment not able to do every training session through the week and then play. He is still going to be managed.

“Arsenal brought him back [at the end of April] and he was straight away decisive. And then they decided together – Bukayo and Arsenal – to let him play through his pain and discomfort, even if it was not possible to train the whole week in the buildups. I think it is very unlikely Bukayo starts and finishes all the matches from now on.”

Tuchel said that Morgan Rogers and Marcus Rashford could play on the right wing but Madueke is really his only other pure option in the position. “Clarity is the most important thing … players know where they can compete,” he added. “We will hopefully not have a lot of experiments in the tournament.”

England play Costa Rica in their second and final warm-up game in Orlando on Wednesday and kick off their World Cup against Croatia in Dallas next Wednesday. Tuchel has a few major decisions to make for his starting XI and arguably none bigger than Rogers versus Jude Bellingham in the No 10 role. Tuchel, though, is keen for the public to stop obsessing about whether Bellingham starts.

“We have a lot of proof we can win football matches without Jude and that’s the more important headline,” Tuchel said. “Jude is with us. Jude is in amazing form but we have to stop talking about individuals. Jude will not win this World Cup alone. It’s simply impossible. No one will win this World Cup alone. We win it as a team.

“I will not play this game. You [in the media] can play this game. We have Harry [Kane], we have Declan, we have Jude, we have Morgan, we have Bukayo Saka. We have big, big players and some of them will be on the bench.

“It is a long tournament and the guys we pick tomorrow [against Costa Rica], the guys we pick against Croatia are not necessarily the guys that we pick in all the games.

“They need to understand that not all of them will start all of the time at the same time. They can play decisive roles when they finish the matches. They can still be upset with my decision, angry and not aligned with my decision but they have to accept it and then push their teammates.”

England beat New Zealand 1-0 in Tampa in their first warm-up friendly on Saturday in what was a glorified training exercise, Tuchel fielding different XIs in each half. He will give certain players 60-70 minutes against Costa Rica and it will be possible to pick up clues about his starting lineup for Croatia.

The Costa Rica game, however, may not offer Tuchel the challenge he originally envisaged. The central American nation sacked the manager, Miguel Herrera, last November after they failed to qualify for the World Cup and replaced him at the start of March with Fernando Batista, who is overseeing a transitional phase. He is expected to play a number of development players against England.

“The idea was that we play against a back four [in the New Zealand game] and a back five [against Costa Rica],” Tuchel said. “But the coach changed in November and [the new man] doesn’t play with a back five any more. So, welcome to reality! But we have to adapt. We need to take the next step from the match against New Zealand, which was what it was, and now I definitely expect a development in every category of the match up front.”