Tuchel submits provisional 55-man England World Cup squad

Thomas Tuchel has submitted his provisional England squad for the World Cup, with Luke Shaw, Danny Welbeck and Alex Scott believed to be among the players named.

It is understood Real Madrid defender Trent Alexander-Arnold has also made the preliminary list.

World football’s governing body Fifa permitted participating nations to submit a long list of 55 players for the tournament, which starts on 11 June, by midnight on Monday.

Tuchel will now work towards cutting down the squad to a final contingent of 26 players for the tournament in the USA, Canada and Mexico.

There has been no official communication of the provisional squad from the Football Association (FA), with the governing body planning to release England’s final squad for the tournament on Friday, 22 May.

Alexander-Arnold, Shaw, Welbeck and Scott were all left out of Tuchel’s previous squad for the friendlies against Uruguay and Japan – but are still in with chance to make the plane across the Atlantic next month.

It will be intriguing to see whether Alexander-Arnold makes the final cut, particularly because of the injury concerns Tuchel currently has at right-back.

The former Liverpool man appeared to be facing an uphill battle to make the squad, with Tuchel preferring Chelsea’s Reece James, Newcastle’s Tino Livramento and Arsenal’s Ben White in the position.

Last year Tuchel said Bayer Leverkusen’s Jarrell Quansah, whose natural position is centre-back, was ahead of Alexander-Arnold in the race for a right-back berth.

But Arsenal defender White is a major doubt for the World Cup with a knee injury suffered in Sunday’s win at West Ham, while Livramento is currently unavailable – though there is hope the Newcastle defender will be fit for the World Cup.

James, who is Tuchel’s first-choice right-back, has also only recently returned from injury.

Elsewhere, Manchester United left-back Shaw could yet earn an international recall in time for the tournament.

Shaw hasn’t played for England since the Euro 2024 final defeat against Spain, mainly due to injury.

But the full-back, who has played 34 times for England, is playing regularly for United, making 36 appearances for his club this season.

Welbeck has been a regular scorer for Brighton this season, with 14 goals for Fabian Hurzeler’s team – but the veteran is yet to break into one of Tuchel’s squads.

Bournemouth midfielder Scott was called up into the senior England squad for the first time in November but was omitted from Tuchel’s previous party.