Declan Rice reveals the funny nickname given to him by his Arsenal team-mates | OneFootball

Declan Rice says he has been jokingly nicknamed “horse” by his Arsenal team-mates because of his running style.

The midfielder says the nickname was started by his team-mate Oleksandr Zinchenko.

Speaking on the England Generations podcast, he said: “I’ve never had a nickname until I went to Arsenal. Everyone at Arsenal calls me horse.

“In the morning, even the nutritionist says ‘morning horse’.

“Zinchenko started it all. He just started it off. He says ‘you are a horse man’. He was like ‘you run like a horse back and forth’. I was like ‘okay, fair enough’.

“Then Jorginho started it. It was so funny, I had a notification on Instagram the other day where Zinchenko sent me a video and I was like ‘what is that?’.

“He sent me this video of a horse running on a beach and was like ‘this is you’. Mate, it’s so random.”

Rice is again part of the England squad to face Albania and Latvia in World Cup qualifiers over the international break, having been included by new boss Thomas Tuchel.

The 26-year-old has received 62 England caps since making his debut in 2019 and has scored five goals.

He was also part of the squads which made the finals of both Euro 2020 and Euro 2024.

Tuchel will take charge of his first game since being named as Gareth Southgate’s successor on Friday and said he wants to bring more “excitement and joy” to the national team.

Speaking ahead of the game, he said: “I want us to play with the excitement and the hunger and the desire and the joy to win.

“The acceptance of failure is a part of it especially in football but we all want to implement the joy and togetherness where everyone feels safe to express themselves and give their very best. That it’s recognisable that we play with the hunger and joy to win and not with the fear to lose.

“Anything can happen in football, we know this, but the focus is on winning, is on a higher number of touches in the opponents box, a higher number of attacks, a higher number of high ball recoveries. This is where the focus is.”