THOMAS TUCHEL will speak to Jude Bellingham over his England future.
The Real Madrid midfielder was left out of the squad for the two games against Wales and Latvia although he will hope to return for next month’s final World Cup qualifiers against Serbia and Albania.
England manager Tuchel has yet to hold talks with Bellingham at length since the German revealed in June that his mother found some of the player’s behaviour “repulsive” during matches.
Bellingham missed the September games against Andorra and Serbia after shoulder surgery but despite playing five matches for Real, was a surprise omission for these last two internationals.
Asked if he will hold talks with Bellingham, Tuchel said: “I guess so. Why not? Of course, he’s an important player, he’s a big player.
“I will speak to a lot of players, also to the guys that got texts from me who were not in the camp.
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“No one has done anything wrong. It’s not a punishment or whatever. And I feel when I text them and I speak to them, that everyone is eager to come back.
“We always speak about the same names but we have Conor Gallagher, we have Trevoh Chalobah and we have Cole Palmer injured.
“So there are a lot of guys out there who would deserve to be with them, and who are hungry and determined to be with us. It has to be like that.”
Still, though, there are no guarantees over Bellingham in a situation which is proving to be intriguing.
Tuchel has still put himself in an awkward position after refusing to make major changes for England‘s last squad because he wanted to reward the players for the 5-0 win in Serbia.
A 3-0 win at home to Wales and 5-0 victory in Latvia were also a decent couple of results but Tuchel will have to axe some of those players if he is going to bring in the likes of Bellingham, Phil Foden and Jack Grealish.
Ben White is also on the verge of a call-up after telling Tuchel he is ready to play again after leaving the 2022 World Cup due to personal reasons.
He was set to be called up for the September matches until he suffered an injury for Arsenal against Manchester United on the opening day.
Tuchel admitted he is thinking of next month’s games – a home match against the Serbs on November 13 followed by a trip to Tirana three days later – and cannot worry about the World Cup.
Asked if he will make changes, he said: “Maybe, but not too much. It needs to be deserved first of all, and it needs to make sense, but I need to get my head around it.
“I want to get my decision right for November. And then comes a long break, I have to say, and then we will see.
“But now it’s a very good moment. We want to keep the thing going. We want to be competitive in the next two matches.”
The draw for next summer’s finals is in Washington on December 5.
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