Who’s on the plane for Thomas Tuchel’s England squad for the 2026 World Cup? Who’s stuck at check-in?

It is thanks to their perfect run that England could seal their spot at the tournament – held in the United States, Canada and Mexico – in the coming days. If Tuchel’s side beat Latvia on October 14, and Serbia fail to win both their matches during the break, England’s job is done – with what would be two games to spare.

Tuchel and his staff will surely already be starting to put names in pen rather than pencil when it comes to their squad – and they will also still have some question marks.

Between now and Tuchel’s final squad announcement, we will track who is sitting pretty on the plane and who is waiting anxiously in the airport.

This is our first outing, and we have three groups in this article. The first is On the Plane – these are the players that are effectively locked in – barring injury.

The second is Departure Loungewith these players more or less guaranteed of their spot but still having to keep their performance levels up over the next few months, otherwise they might get caught by a player on our final list.

And that last group is Stuck at Check-in. These players have been in squads before or could make a late surprise push, but for one reason or another, they are probably on the outside looking in and face a real battle to make the squad.

• Dean Henderson
• Jordan Pickford
• James Trafford

• Dan Burns
• Ezri consa
• Reece James

• Jude Bellingham
• Jordan Henderson
• Declan Rice
• Morgan Rogers

• Rear seat
• Cole Palmer
• Bukayo from
• Anthony Gordon
• Harry Kane

Of the four squads that Tuchel has named since taking charge, there have been 12 ever-presents. There are 11 of them here with one in the next section (more on that later).

So, barring injury, we imagine Tuchel will almost certainly pick Dean Henderson, Pickford, Trafford, Burn, Konsa, James, Jordan Henderson, Rice, Rogers, Gordon and his captain, Kane.

Bellingham, Eze, Palmer and Saka have all had injuries in 2025, but there is no questioning their places. In essence, 15 of the squad places could already be spoken for.

• Marc Guehi
• Jarell Quansah
• Myles Lewis-Skelly

• Jarrod Bowen
• Ollie Watkins
• Marcus Rashford
• Call Maduyke

Yes, Lewis-Skelly has been in every Tuchel squad, but the England manager made it clear that you have to be playing regularly and, currently, the Arsenal youngster is not doing that, as he is behind Riccardo Calafiori in Mikel Arteta’s selection.

“To just be a good citizen in camp will not be enough over the course of a year. He was a very good player in camp, a very good team-mate in camp. But being a good team-mate in camp may not be good enough to stay the whole year with us.

“You have to perform at club level on a regular basis. In the last camp, he got the credit, that I was convinced we have to take care of him and nominate him because we accelerated his career. It was our responsibility after we called him last season. So we stick to this.”

Guehi, Bowen, Rashford and Watkins have all been in three of the four squads and are clearly favourites of the manager. Furthermore, for Rashford, his move to Barcelona is providing good early returns and should help his case. Barring injury, you would expect all of them to make it.

Phil Foden’s talent is undeniable, but for a lot of Tuchel’s tenure he has not been part of squads because of mixed form. If he can keep up his good early-season work, he should be involved, but that is not a guarantee.

Foden is at the bottom of this tier, as are Quansah and Madueke. Quansah has been a regular for Bayer Leverkusen and has impressed in their upturn, while Madueke was showing great signs before sustaining an injury. Providing their impressive form continues, they should be there, but they are also far from guaranteed.

• Tino Livramento
• John Stones
• Fikayo Tomori
• Trent Alexander-Arnold
• Trevoh Chalobah
• Djed Spence

• Elliot Anderson
• Ruben Loftus-Cheek
• Curtis Jones
• Conor Gallagher
• Adam Wharton
• Carney Chime

• Dominic Solanke
• Morgan Gibbs-White
• Ivan Toney

This is a big list, and there might be only one or two places up for grabs, so it will be tough going.

We can split it into a few groups to help us think about it more easily. The first is players who you expect to probably make it but injuries or playing time have seen them drop down the pecking order.

Here we have Anderson, Alexander-Arnold, Solanke and Stones, players who have been in squads but not all of them. Anderson and Stones will feel comfortable of working their way in but the other two feel under real pressure after slower starts to the season.

The middle ground is players who also might have had a good case to be in the final group at different times, but it feels as though, at the moment, they have fallen somewhat out of favour.

Gibbs-White, Spence, Chalobah, Wharton and Livramento all fit in here. This tournament may come at the wrong time for them, but they are surely being considered, and do have time on their side.

The final section is players currently the furthest on the outside. Maybe they have been in a squad here or there, but ultimately, they will need a spectacular season to make a push. Here you can look at Loftus-Cheek, Tomori, Gallagher, Toney, Jones and Chukwuemeka.

Pope is his own wildcard. He has never been called up by Tuchel, but with Trafford suddenly struggling for game time at Manchester City, there is an outside chance Tuchel could want a third goalkeeper who is playing regularly.

Previously, that might have been Aaron Ramsdale, but ironically, he is now Pope’s back-up at Newcastle.