Thomas Tuchel will head into England’s World Cup semi-final against Argentina in Atlanta on Wednesday with all but two of his squad available, as Jordan Henderson and Jarell Quansah were confirmed as the only players ruled out of the tournament’s biggest game to date.
Henderson, 35, has not featured since England’s quarter-final win over Norway after aggravating a calf problem in the warm-up, while Quansah remains sidelined by the ankle injury he picked up in the last-16 victory over DR Congo. Both trained away from the main group at England’s Georgia base on Monday, and Tuchel confirmed neither would be risked against the reigning world champions.
A near-full deck for the biggest night
For a manager who has spent the tournament managing a congested fixture list and a run of minor knocks, the timing could hardly be better. Declan Rice, who missed part of the build-up to the Norway tie with illness, has trained fully all week. Bukayo Saka, Jude Bellingham and Harry Kane — England’s captain and record scorer — are all fit, with Kane one goal short of matching Gary Lineker’s tally at a single World Cup finals.
Tuchel confirmed that Marc Guehi is available to partner John Stones at centre-back, filling the gap left by Quansah, while Kyle Walker’s recovery from a dead leg means the German has genuine competition at full-back. “We are as close to a full squad as we have been all summer,” Tuchel said. “That is a luxury at this stage of a World Cup. Everyone knows their role and everyone is fit to perform it.”
The absences of Henderson and Quansah are not without consequence. Henderson has been a trusted figure off the bench, a voice Tuchel has leaned on in tight moments, while Quansah’s pace had offered a specific solution to quick forwards. Against an Argentina side built around Lionel Messi’s vision and the movement of Julián Álvarez and Lautaro Martínez, that pace will be missed. But with Guehi in form and Rice screening in front of the back four, Tuchel insists the structure remains intact.
What England are walking into
Argentina arrive in Atlanta as the team no one has solved. Lionel Scaloni’s side, unbeaten in the tournament, dispatched a dangerous Colombia team in the last eight and have conceded just twice in five matches. Messi, at 39 and in what is widely accepted to be his final World Cup, has three goals and four assists and remains the axis around which everything turns.
This is also a fixture soaked in history. England and Argentina have met at four previous World Cups, producing the Diego Maradona ‘Hand of God’ in 1986, David Beckham’s red card in 1998, and Michael Owen’s teenage brilliance in that same tournament. The two nations have never met at a World Cup with a place in the final at stake — until now.
For England, the prize is a first World Cup final on foreign soil and only their second in the competition’s history, 60 years after the 1966 triumph on home turf. For Argentina, it is the chance to defend the crown they lifted in 2022 and to send Messi to one last final. The stakes carry the weight of two footballing cultures that have circled each other for four decades.
The margins that will decide it
Wednesday’s match is likely to hinge on the finest details, and a near-complete squad hands Tuchel options his predecessors often lacked. He can match Argentina’s midfield with Rice and Bellingham, trust Guehi and Stones to hold a high line without Quansah’s recovery pace, and call on a bench containing Cole Palmer, Phil Foden and Ollie Watkins if the game demands a change of shape.
The Henderson absence removes an experienced head, but England’s spine — Pickford, Stones, Rice, Bellingham, Kane — remains untouched. That continuity is why Tuchel spoke this week of a group that is “completely together”, a message his captain has echoed.
England have reached this stage before and fallen short, losing semi-finals in 1990 and 2018 and a European final on penalties in 2021. What is different now is the depth of the squad and the fact that, on the eve of the biggest game of Tuchel’s reign, he is choosing from strength rather than counting his losses. Two players out, and none of them from his strongest eleven. Against Messi and the world champions, England will need every ounce of that advantage.
Sports journalist and editor at SportsPortal.net. Covers cricket, football, Formula 1, tennis, and basketball with a focus on how global sports connect with Pakistani audiences. Follows the PSL, Pakistan national cricket team, Premier League, and major international tournaments. Has reported on sports for digital audiences since 2021.
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