England boss Thomas Tuchel believes fit again star Jude Bellingham heads into the World Cup in his “sweet spot”.
The relationship between the Real Madrid midfielder and his national team manager has been under the spotlight since the German coach admitted last June that his mother found some of his on-field antics “repulsive”.
Tuchel apologised for that remark before overlooking him for October’s camp and facing questions about recalled Bellingham’s reaction to being substituted in November’s final World Cup qualifier in Albania.
An injury ruled the 22-year-old out of the March friendlies, yet he spent that time with England doing rehabilitation on a frustrating hamstring issue that may end up boosting their quest for World Cup glory.
Tuchel handed Bellingham the captain’s armband for the second half of Saturday’s scrappy 1-0 warm-up friendly against New Zealand in Tampa and said: “You can see Jude has for sure the decisiveness and bite.
“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.”
Another of England’s players to recover from a frustrating hamstring lay-off is Reece James, who won the Champions League under Tuchel during their time together at Chelsea.
“I was just happy to see Reece back and fresh back in training, and with confidence in his body,” Tuchel said of the second-half introduction.
“Because you can just see out there, once he has his 45 minutes, he can produce special moments anytime.
“He has the body to defend on the highest level and the physicality, so it’s a full package as well.
“He gives us flexibility because he plays many times for Chelsea on the six, so he is a candidate to play there as well.
“At the moment he plays for us and he played for us in international football as a right full-back.
“That’s for me his main position for us, but he stays as an alternative in the middle of the pitch, but Elliot (Anderson) is doing very well.
“Also for Reece, he had his injury, unfortunately for him and Chelsea, but you can see now he’s actually also like reaching a kind of a sweet spot of excitement and hunger and joy to be back on the pitch.”
England made the 200-mile journey back to their warm weather camp in West Palm Beach after beating New Zealand in Tampa without their key Arsenal quartet.
Bukayo Saka, Declan Rice, Noni Madueke and Eberechi Eze all had time off following last weekend’s agonising Champions League final loss to Paris St Germain before flying to Florida.
They join the squad as preparations for the World Cup opener against Croatia on June 17 continue, with Wednesday’s final friendly against Costa Rica in Orlando.
“We wanted to play against different continents, we wanted to play against different styles and not against European teams,” Tuchel added.
“Costa Rica is a football country and will bring emotions and excitement, of course.
“It’s a good test for us, so to adapt to a different style, to adapt to a different mentality were the key reasons.”
