It didn’t exactly dominate the conversation around England ahead of their World Cup campaign, but there was certainly a fair amount of discourse regarding the fitness of certain key players.
Bukayo Saka has been dealing with an Achilles injury since March, while club team mates Declan Rice, Noni Madueke and Eberechi Eze’s seasons rolled into June thanks to their UEFA Champions League final exploits.
There was then the tournament-ending injury to Tino Livramento, prompting a late call-up for Trevoh Chalobah, while fellow defender John Stones hardly kicked a ball for Manchester City last term.
If England are to win the World Cup, they’ll almost certainly do it with wins at the Azteca in Mexico – likely against Mexico – and at the open-air Miami Stadium in the middle of July, with Thomas Tuchel using Florida as the acclimatisation base prior to the tournament.
World Cups are gruelling for all the contenders; they come at the end of long domestic seasons, they’re usually played in the summer, and they cram seven games into little over four weeks.
This time around, an eighth game is added, and the tournament is played partly in air-conditioned stadiums and partly in sweltering, sauna-like conditions.
It adds even more emphasis to squad management and as the old saying goes: it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish. Argentina’s shock defeat to Saudi Arabia was a distant memory by the time Lionel Messi hoisted the trophy aloft in Lusail four years ago. The same can be said of Spain’s opening defeat to Switzerland in 2010.
The same may yet be said about La Roja’s stunning draw to Cape Verde in their opener, while England’s convincing win over Croatia could be all for nought. The expanded World Cup puts less importance on the group stage, and all of the big favourites should top their groups with little fuss.
Tuchel will be acutely aware of the importance of keeping his “14 or 15 starters” fit, and while gambles might need to be taken in the knockout rounds, there’s no reason for England to go all guns blazing against Ghana and Panama.
Ghana were poor against Panama, and Tuchel knows that even a draw against the Black Stars will leave them a short-price favourite to top the group, something they’d almost certainly achieve with a win against Panama.
While the knives might be out from the usual suspects should the Three Lions drop points against Ghana, a much worse result is losing a key player in a game they don’t need to win.
Spain have already taken their share of flak for the draw against Cape Verde. It was an uninspiring performance but in many ways, Luis de la Fuente can count it as a win. He got to give Lamine Yamal some minutes towards the end, he found out a little more about his squad and made the required changes against Saudi Arabia.
In Spain’s second game, with the three points wrapped up by half-time, De la Fuente could remove Yamal and the half-fit Mikel Oyarzabal, keeping them fresher for the more demanding fixtures.
Tuchel has already said Saka won’t be fit to start against Ghana, and while his performance off the bench against Croatia was impressive, it was hardly essential. For a player who’s been dealing with an Achilles injury for the last three months, R&R seems more beneficial than even a fleeting run-out from the bench.
These are games to start Ollie Watkins, Morgan Rogers, Kobbie Mainoo and Jarell Quansah. Should England beat Ghana, even more rotation can be facilitated, where we may see the likes of Jordan Henderson, Djed Spence and Dan Burn, particularly with a potential round of 32 game against Uzbekistan or DR Congo.
There’s little reason for Reece James’s fitness to be risked given his injury history and England’s lack of quality in depth at right-back. Similarly, England are light in midfield, and while both Rice and Elliot Anderson have excellent injury records, both are imperative to England’s hopes.
It’s not the done thing to rest players at a World Cup before your status in the group is confirmed. But this isn’t a normal World Cup, and Tuchel must make bold decisions if he wants to go all the way.
