England World Cup Squad: Key Absences and Bold Selections

Thomas Tuchel has named his England squad for this summer’s World Cup – and the headline is as much about who stays at home as who boards the plane.

Phil Foden, Cole Palmer and Morgan Gibbs-White are all out. So are Harry Maguire, Trent Alexander-Arnold, James Garner, Luke Shaw and Adam Wharton. For a country that has grown used to debating the “last three spots”, this feels different. These are players who usually sit at the heart of that argument, suddenly removed from it.

England open their campaign on June 17 against Croatia, then face Ghana and Panama in a group that looks manageable on paper but unforgiving if they start slowly. Tuchel has clearly decided this is not the moment for half-measures or sentiment.

The absences created room for a calculated roll of the dice. Ivan Toney, with just a single England appearance since 2024 and now plying his trade in the Saudi Pro League with Al-Ahli, is in. A bold call. Toney brings penalty-box presence, nerve from the spot and a certain edge that England squads often lack once the knockout pressure bites. Tuchel is betting that those qualities matter more than club postcode or recent international mileage.

If the attack carries a touch of risk, the midfield offers reassurance. Declan Rice anchors a group that looks robust, modern and varied. Elliot Anderson, Morgan Rogers and Kobbie Mainoo all arrive off strong seasons, each with a different profile: Rice the enforcer and organiser, Mainoo the smooth link between lines, Anderson and Rogers capable of carrying the ball and breaking shape.

It is a core that suggests Tuchel wants control as much as chaos. With no Maguire or Alexander-Arnold, the build-up burden will tilt heavily towards that midfield, asked to protect, to dictate and to release the flair England still possess in other areas despite the omission of Foden and Palmer.

The noise around who has missed out will not fade quickly. It never does with England. But the real judgement will come in those opening minutes against Croatia, when Tuchel’s gamble either looks visionary – or brutally exposed on the biggest stage.