Jude Bellingham's World Cup Status Under Thomas Tuchel

Thomas Tuchel is not handing out reputations. Not even to Jude Bellingham.

The England head coach has made it clear that the Real Madrid midfielder, once an automatic pick under Gareth Southgate, is now just one of “14 or 15 potential starters” fighting for a place at the World Cup.

“He has,” Tuchel replied bluntly when asked if Bellingham faces a battle to make the XI. “He is one of the starters, he knows he is one of the starters, but we have 14 or 15 potential starters. These roles can always change, but at the moment I think there are 14 or 15 proper starters and Jude is one of them.”

It is a striking shift in status. Bellingham missed only 29 minutes of England’s run to the Euro 2024 final, starting all seven matches and carrying much of the emotional weight of that campaign. Under Tuchel, appointed in January 2025, his role has shrunk.

He has started just four times in the German’s 13 games in charge, with three more appearances from the bench. Instead, Tuchel has built his midfield axis around Aston Villa’s Morgan Rogers, who has featured in 12 of those 13 fixtures and is the only player to have taken part in all eight World Cup qualifiers.

Rogers has become the constant. Bellingham, surprisingly, the variable.

Injuries have not helped. The 22-year-old missed two qualifiers last September with a shoulder problem, then watched October’s camp from home, including a competitive fixture against Latvia, as Tuchel chose to look elsewhere. He returned to the squad in November, only for a persistent hamstring issue to rule him out of March’s friendlies and stall his momentum again.

The on-pitch story has been complicated by what has happened off it. Bellingham’s relationship with Tuchel has been under the microscope almost from the start. After a defeat to Senegal last June, the manager described the midfielder’s behaviour during the match as “repulsive” – a word that detonated across the back pages and forced a later apology.

The tension did not end there. In November, Tuchel publicly promised to “review” Bellingham’s behaviour after the player reacted angrily to being substituted in a qualifier against Albania. For a footballer used to being indulged, it marked a clear change of tone.

And yet, just as the World Cup looms into view, the narrative has twisted again.

In Tampa on Saturday, Bellingham came off the bench at half-time in a 1-0 warm-up win over New Zealand and promptly took the captain’s armband. The gesture was deliberate: a reminder of his status, but also a test of his response. Tuchel liked what he saw.

“You can see Jude has for sure the decisiveness and bite,” the England coach said. “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.”

Tuchel pointed to the context of Bellingham’s club season, interrupted at a brutal moment for both player and team.

“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.”

That “sweet spot” is what makes this selection battle so intriguing. A fully fit, fully engaged Bellingham has rarely been left out of any team he has played for. Tuchel, though, is determined to build a squad where status alone does not guarantee a shirt.

Rogers’ iron grip on a place through qualifying shows how far the landscape has shifted. Eight qualifiers, one ever-present. For now, the Villa midfielder is the symbol of Tuchel’s new England: tactically obedient, relentlessly available, quietly trusted.

Bellingham is something different – the game-breaker, the emotional surge, the player who bends matches to his will. Tuchel clearly values that edge, but he wants it on his terms.

So the message, delivered with typical steel, is simple. Jude Bellingham will go to the World Cup as one of England’s “proper starters”. Whether he actually starts is another matter entirely.