Sports
Bellingham Left Out of England’s October Fixtures
Jude Bellingham has been left out of Thomas Tuchel’s England squad for the October international fixtures, sparking surprise among fans and analysts.
The 22-year-old midfielder, who recently returned from shoulder surgery, has played four matches for Real Madrid but will not feature in England’s upcoming games against Wales and Latvia.
The Three Lions, runners-up at Euro 2024, will face Wales in a friendly on Thursday before resuming their World Cup qualification campaign away to Latvia five days later.
Bellingham missed September’s internationals due to his injury but was just named the 2024/25 England Men’s Player of the Year. Despite that honor, Tuchel has opted against including him in the 24-man squad.
Bukayo Saka makes his return after recovering from a hamstring injury, while Cole Palmer, Noni Madueke, and Tino Livramento miss out due to fitness concerns. Trent Alexander-Arnold remains sidelined, and Jack Grealish and Phil Foden have again been overlooked.
Tuchel explained his decision, saying: “It was only three weeks since the last camp and the last win, the last performance, so the question was why not bring the same group in because they set the standard. Now it is about creating habits out of it. We have unfortunately two injuries at the moment with Tino and Noni and we bring of course Bukayo Saka in to replace Noni. Jarell Quansah was a late call-up last time, he will stay in camp.”
England impressed last month with a 2-0 win over Andorra and a dominant 5-0 victory against Serbia, maintaining a perfect record in their World Cup qualifying group.
