Jude Bellingham is set to be included in Thomas Tuchel’s latest England squad for the World Cup qualifiers against Serbia and Albania. Tuchel will name his latest squad at Wembley on Friday morning.
Bellingham has not played for the Three Lions since June and was a notable omission from Tuchel’s squad as his side beat Wales in a friendly and then confirmed their place at next summer’s World Cup with a 5-0 thumping of Latvia last month. The Real Madrid star had been making his way back from shoulder surgery and had yet to complete 90 minutes when Tuchel named his squad for the October internationals. However, his absence was still a huge talking point.
But according to The Guardian, Tuchel has decided to give Bellingham an England recall for this month’s games. His decision comes after he opted against watching the midfielder in action for Real Madrid against Liverpool on Tuesday night.
Asked if he expected to be recalled after the game at Anfield, Bellingham said: “It’s not my call unfortunately. I think you know whose call that is. I’d love to be [back in the squad], but it’s not my call. I’ll be waiting, we’ll have to see.”
Tuchel was forced to apologise after mistakenly saying in an interview back in June that his mother thinks the midfielder’s on-pitch temperament “can be a bit repulsive”. Speaking last month, he also insisted there were no issues between the pair.
“He is a very special player, and for special players there can always be special rules,” Tuchel said.
“I get this. But for this camp, we decided that we stick with our straightforward decision to invite the same team. That applies also then for Jude. He deserves always to be in camp.
“He wanted to be called up. We had a phone call. There was no issue from that side, he just lacks rhythm.
“He hasn’t finished one complete match and on top of it, we stayed with our decision to go with the same squad.”
When suggested to Tuchel that some people could think there was a problem between him and Bellingham, he replied: “No.
“There is also no problem between me and Phil Foden, there is no problem between me and Jack Grealish. Very special players. Phil is back to influencing games, deciding games for Manchester City.
“Jack is very close to being the best version of himself – a very special player, a very special character. There is no problem at all and there is no personal problem in the nomination.”
