Thomas Tuchel has explained his decision to call up Chelsea defender Trevoh Chalobah to England’s 2026 World Cup squad following an injury to full-back Tino Livramento.
Livramento sustained a calf injury in training at England’s Kansas City base over the weekend and had to withdraw from the squad.
Tuchel could have called up a raft of other full-back options, including Real Madrid’s Trent Alexander-Arnold, Arsenal’s Myles Lewis-Skelly and Newcastle’s Lewis Hall.
However the England manager chose to bring Chalobah, a centre-back, into the fold.
The decision would appear to leave England light in certain areas of the squad, with only Reece James, Nico O’Reilly and Djed Spence as orthodox full-backs. But Tuchel insisted the Bayer Leverkusen centre-back Jarell Quansah can fill in.
“Tino has an injury of four or five weeks which is unfortunately too long to reintegrate him into the squad,” Tuchel said.
“We called Trevoh Chalobah because it frees up Jarrell Quansah to play full-back on both sides, and Djed Spence can play full-back on both sides, so it gives us full coverage in defence.”
England take on Croatia in the Dallas Stadium on Wednesday as they bid to get their World Cup off to the best possible start in Group L.
The German has been a serial trophy winner throughout his coaching career, lifting league titles in his homeland and France before leading Chelsea to the Champions League crown in 2021.
But the 52-year-old was unequivocal regarding the magnitude of the finals as he seeks to secure England’s second title, 60 years after their first.
“It’s up there,” said Tuchel, raising his hand above his head. “Definitely. Easy. It’s the best stage, it’s the biggest tournament in the world, the biggest competition, the biggest players playing in the same tournament. This is what it is.
“I’m grateful to have the possibility to be the coach of England and to have the experience to coach in a World Cup.
“It comes with responsibility and I want to live up to this responsibility and push the team, prepare the team and support the players to do their very best.
“We dream. We dream. We have the right to dream, but we don’t want to be delusional. It comes with responsibility and with the effort. We want to put the effort in and deserve the outcome. We do that and it starts tomorrow.”
The match sees the two nations meet at the World Cup for the first time since Croatia defeated Gareth Southgate’s England side in the 2018 semi-finals, with Tuchel wary of Zlatko Dalic’s squad despite their opponent’s aging legs.
“I think it’s quite obvious they still have the core midfield with (Mateo) Kovacic and with Luka Modric in the centre of their game,” he said.
“They have a very strong, a very solid back three and with Mateo and Luka Modric they still have the heartbeat of the team in the middle. They always provide threat with (Ivan) Perisic on the left side with both legs, inswinging and outswinging.
“They have experience in tournaments, they have a very experienced coach in tournaments, they are emotional, they traditionally are a strong national team and that’s what we face.
“They are very flexible between back four and back five, they are very flexible within matches so we have to adapt, we have to get the initiative right and we need a complex performance and we need all of it to be able to win.
“I’m confident we know what it takes. It’s a strong team and we are full of respect.”
