Thomas Tuchel submitted his provisional England squad for the World Cup on Monday, handing a 55-man list to Fifa as he begins the run-in to this summer’s tournament.
The long list is the maximum allowed — Fifa permitted participating nations to submit a 55-man pool for the 2026 tournament — and Tuchel will now work towards cutting that down to a final contingent of 26 players. England’s final 26-man squad is planned to be released on Friday, 22 May.
Among the names understood to have made the preliminary list were Trent Alexander-Arnold, while Luke Shaw, Danny Welbeck and Alex Scott are believed to be included. The figures underline the scale of Tuchel’s task: a 55-man long list that must be reduced to 26 before the deadline.
The timing matters. The World Cup starts on 11 June and England open their campaign in Group L on June 18 against Croatia; the group also contains Ghana and Panama. With barely three weeks between the final-squad announcement and the opening match, fitness and form will be decisive in the final selections.
The recalled names carry their own storylines. Alexander-Arnold has not played for England since appearing off the bench in a World Cup qualifying victory over Andorra in June last year. Shaw has not featured since the Euro 2024 final defeat against Spain; he has 34 caps for England and made 36 appearances for Manchester United this season. Welbeck enjoyed a productive season at Brighton, scoring 14 goals, and Scott only broke into the senior squad for the first time in November.
Those returns are set against clear selection problems. Tuchel previously left Alexander-Arnold, Shaw, Welbeck and Scott out of the squad for friendlies against Uruguay and Japan, and England has been managing a run of right-back concerns: Reece James has only recently returned from injury, Tino Livramento is unavailable and Ben White emerged as a major doubt after suffering a knee injury on Sunday in Arsenal’s win at West Ham. That sequence — absence from recent squads, club form, and fresh injuries — is the friction point of Tuchel’s provisional exercise.
The tension is straightforward: Tuchel has acknowledged the luxury of a 55-man list but not the time to tinker. He must balance recency of international experience with current club fitness, and decide whether to back players returning from long absences. With the World Cup just weeks away and England preparing for their first tournament under new management after a decade with the previous coach, every selection will be scrutinized.
What happens next is simple and unforgiving. Tuchel will trim his list to 26 players and announce the final squad on May 22, leaving less than three weeks for those chosen to prove they can be match-fit for the June 18 opener. The practical question that follows the submission of the 55-man list is who survives the cut — and whether injuries at right-back force Tuchel to prioritise cover over form in the final selection.
