Bellingham must fight for first team shirt at World Cup –Tuchel
England coach Thomas Tuchel has revealed that Jude Bellingham has to fight for a starting shirt at the 2026 FIFA World Cup which kicks off on Thursday.
Bellingham has not enjoyed a regular playing time with the Three Lions since Tuchel was appointed in January 2025.
He has only started four matches while coming off the bench three times since Tuchel’s appointment.
The German manager has preferred Aston Villa’s Morgan Rogers in the number 10 role, he has played 12 out of Tuchel’s 13 matches in charge of the team.
Rogers was the only player involved in each of England’s eight World Cup qualifying matches.
Bellingham was left out of the October international break before making a return in November.
Tuchel was asked if Bellingham hands to be in the starting XI.
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He said: “Yes, he has. He is one of the starters, he knows he is one of the starters, but we have 14 or 15 potential starters.
“These roles can always change, but at the moment I think there are 14 or 15 proper starters and Jude is one of them.”
However, Tuchel was impressed with Bellingham’s performance in the friendly match against New Zealand.
He said: “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.”
Bellingham has scored six goals and recorded 10 assists in 47 matches for England since making his debut in 2020.
England will slug it out with Croatia, Ghana and Panama in Group L.
They will open their campaign against Croatia on June 17 before taking on England on June 23, their last group match is against Panama four days later.
Tuchel has been tasked with ending the country’s trophy drought which dates back to their last World Cup triumph in 1966.
