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 have changed under Gareth Southgate’s replacement.

The 22-year-old missed two qualifying matches last September because of a shoulder injury but was overlooked for October’s international camp, including a qualifier against Latvia.

He returned to the squad in November but was forced to miss friendlies in March with a persistent hamstring issue.

His relationship with Tuchel has frequently come under scrutiny, with the manager describing Bellingham’s on-field behaviour during last June’s defeat by Senegal as “repulsive” – a remark Tuchel later apologised for.

In November, Tuchel said he would “review” Bellingham’s behaviour following his reaction to being substituted during a qualifier against Albania.

However, he was impressed with Bellingham’s performance in Saturday’s World Cup warm-up match against New Zealand in Tampa, believing he has hit a “sweet spot” heading into the tournament.

Bellingham took the captain’s armband after coming on at half-time in the 1-0 win.

“You can see Jude has for sure the decisiveness and bite,” Tuchel said. “This is his key characteristic, but you can see that he comes from an injury and is full of energy and happy to be back on the pitch.

“He had his break, unfortunately, in a decisive part of the season, the Champions League season and campaign for the championship in Spain, so this was very unfortunate for Real Madrid and for him personally.

“But you can see now that he is actually in a sweet spot. He comes back, he’s fresh, he wants to play and he’s in top shape.”