England Team Selection Announced: Jude and Foden Omitted, Bukayo Makes Comeback
Thomas Tuchel has chosen to retain the identical England squad that triumphed against Andorra and delivered an impressive performance in Serbia last month, finding no place for the Real Madrid star and Phil Foden in his group for the forthcoming friendly against Wales and the qualifying match in Latvia.
Although Foden making a strong case for a recall after regaining his top condition at his club, and Jude Bellingham having returned for his Spanish club following shoulder surgery, the head coach has opted not to selecting two of the country's biggest offensive stars. Bellingham has been in the starting lineup only once for his club since his return.
Tuchel has made room for Bukayo Saka, who is fully recovered and has been restored in place of his injured Arsenal teammate Noni Madueke. The experienced attacker has not received a recall.
Complete England Squad List
Shot-stoppers
- Dean Henderson (his club)
- Jordan Pickford (Everton)
- Manchester City's goalkeeper (the Citizens)
Defenders
- Dan Burn (Newcastle United)
- Crystal Palace's centre-back (the Eagles)
- Reece James (Chelsea)
- Aston Villa's defender (the Villans)
- Myles Lewis-Skelly (Arsenal)
- Jarell Quansah (the German club)
- Tottenham's defender (Spurs)
- John Stones (the Sky Blues)
Engine room
- Elliot Anderson (Nottingham Forest)
- Nottingham Forest's playmaker (Nottingham Forest)
- Jordan Henderson (Brentford)
- Milan's midfielder (the Italian side)
- Declan Rice (the North London club)
- Morgan Rogers (Aston Villa)
Forwards
- West Ham's forward (West Ham United)
- Arsenal's attacker (the Emirates side)
- Newcastle's winger (Newcastle United)
- Harry Kane (the German giants)
- Marcus Rashford (the Catalan club, loan from Manchester United)
- Arsenal's star (Arsenal)
- Ollie Watkins (Villa)
The national team coach expressed his admiration for the energy in the previous selection and seems intent on keeping the same atmosphere. The Newcastle defender, who featured at left-back in the 5-0 win in Serbia, has been ruled out due to a knee injury. Tuchel has not called up a direct replacement for the Magpies star but has included the Manchester City defender, who had to withdraw previously. He has discussed the centre-back's importance for England and has suggested deploying him in the middle of the park.
There is no place for the midfielder, who was selected last month but withdrew due to injury and was substituted by Ruben Loftus-Cheek.
Tuchel said: “It was only three weeks after the last camp and the most recent victory, the last performance, so the consideration was why not select the same group in because they established a benchmark. The focus now is on creating habits out of it. We have unfortunately two injuries at the moment with Tino and Noni and we bring of course the Arsenal forward in to take the place of Madueke. Jarell Quansah was a late call-up previously; he will stay in camp.”