Shortly before the first World Cup game
Tuchel sends four international players home
June 13, 2026 – 9:52 a.mReading time: 2 minutes
England’s national team travels to the team headquarters with great ambitions. For four professionals, however, their World Cup dream is dashed for the time being.
The English national team is one of the big title contenders at the 2026 World Cup. In 2021 and 2024, the “Three Lions” became vice-European champions, and the big goal is now to be achieved at the tournament in the USA, Canada and Mexico. Four young stars are not allowed to take part.
The national team said goodbye to Alex Scott, Ethan Nwaneri, Rio Ngumoha and Josh King late Saturday evening. However, coach Thomas Tuchel does not have to nominate any other players because the four professionals increased the English squad to a total of 30 professionals during the preparatory training camp. At the World Cup finals, each team is only allowed to have 26 players in its squad.
In an article on X, the English association wrote about a picture of the quartet that it had been “an important part of our preparation so far.” The British held their training camp in Florida and traveled to their World Cup headquarters in Kansas City on Saturday evening.
It was already clear that the four young stars would have to travel home – at least in the case of Nwaneri, Ngumoha and King. Because the three are not on the provisional 55-man list that Tuchel had to submit well before the start of the World Cup. Scott’s name, on the other hand, is on this list, so he still has a remaining chance of taking part in the World Cup. If a field player is injured, England can nominate another professional up to 24 hours before the first game.
The British start the tournament against Croatia late on Wednesday evening (from 10 p.m. in the live ticker on t-online). The other group opponents are Ghana and Panama.