World Cup 2026: Jude Bellingham has fight to start for England – Thomas Tuchel

Bellingham missed just 29 minutes of England’s Euro 2024 campaign, starting all seven matches, but his fortunes changed when he was replaced by Gareth Southgate.

The 22-year-old missed two qualifying matches last September due to a shoulder injury but did not participate in the international camp in October, including the Latvian qualifiers.

He returned to the team in November but was forced to miss friendlies in March due to a persistent hamstring problem.

His relationship with Tuchel has come under frequent scrutiny, with the manager describing Bellingham’s on-pitch behavior during last June’s defeat against Senegal as “disgusting”; it was a statement for which Tuchel later apologized.

In November, Tuchel said he would “examine” Bellingham’s behavior following his reaction to a substitution in the qualifier against Albania.

But he was impressed with Bellingham’s performance in Saturday’s World Cup warm-up match against New Zealand in Tampa and believed he had reached a “good point” heading into the tournament.

Bellingham received the captain’s band after entering the game at halftime of the match, which was won 1-0.

“You can see that Jude definitely has the determination and the bite,” Tuchel said. “That’s his main thing, but you can see he’s coming off an injury, he’s full of energy and he’s happy to be back on the field.

“Unfortunately, he had a break in a decisive part of the season, the Champions League season and the title campaign in Spain, which was very unfortunate for both Real Madrid and himself.

“But now you can see that he’s actually in good shape. He’s coming back, he’s fresh, he wants to play and he’s in top shape.”