Ivan Toney breaks silence amid claims he was 'humiliated' by Thomas Tuchel in England's defeat to Senegal

England striker Ivan Toney cut a frustrated figure on Tuesday night after spending much of their 3-1 defeat to Senegal on the bench, but he is clearly delighted to be back with his family after a testing international break.

Ahead of games against Andorra and Senegal, an enthusiastic Thomas Tuchel explained his decision to recall Toney to his England squad.

“We follow him closely, like all the players on our list, same for Ivan,” he said. “We watched him a lot, he had massive contributions and decisive goals in important matches, he won a big title with his club, the Asian Champions League.

“I didn’t have the opportunity to see him live in Saudi, so we took the opportunity to fly him into our camp and watch him in the group, see his personality and his quality."

After saying he would compete with Harry Kane and Ollie Watkins, however, Tuchel failed to use Toney in their World Cup qualifier against Andorra, and limited the Al Alhi forward to just five minutes in their 3-1 loss to Senegal.

To the surprise of many, Tuchel decided to bring on Chelsea winger Noni Madueke in the 70th minute as cameras panned to Toney, who cut a frustrated and despondent figure.

Plenty of people watching the game had their say on the matter, including journalist Oliver Holt, who wrote: "I don’t understand why Tuchel chose to humiliate Ivan Toney the way he did. Not a good look."

A day after the game in Nottingham and Toney broke his social media silence with a picture of his family on Instagram. He captioned the post: "Back with the trouble makers [love heart emoji]."

Toney cut a frustrated figure on the bench. Image credit: ITV

Speaking to ITV after the game, Tuchel explained his thinking behind Toney's late introduction, hinting that the forward may have to get used to limited game time due to his specialist role.

"First of all it was more than three minutes," he said. "Second of all I think that Ivan is a specialist for exactly these situations."

Tuchel added: "We created a lot of chances with Gibbs-White, with Ebs [Eberechi Eze], with Morgan Rodgers, and with Jude in fluid positions.

"I think Ivan is strongest when we have a phase where we have a lot of balls in the box and that was the case, so after 80 minutes we got him ready.

"Then we scored and they took the goal away and it took a little while longer than we wanted but that's what he can give - presence in the box and a goal later in the match."

After the full-time whistle, former Manchester United midfielder Roy Keane suggested Toney will be "fuming’ with the England boss.

"The other subs had a bit of an impact, better than the other day [against Andorra], so that’s a bit of a plus," he told ITV. "But if you’re Toney and you’re getting three, four, five minutes, do you know what you’d be fuming."

Ian Wright added: "I can only look at it like he’s seen him all week, he didn’t look to put him on until that late, I don’t know what he’s seen in training that he may not like up to this point.

"I was very surprised to see him not come on, especially when we saw Morgan Gibbs-White and Morgan Rogers come on, I would be disappointed if I was him but you’ve got to keep going."

Toney was introduced in the 88th minute against Senegal. Image credit: Getty

Toney, who left Brentford last summer to join Al Ahli, netted 30 goals in all competitions for the Saudi Pro League side last season.

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