Thomas Tuchel has found the perfect solution to England’s Bellingham-Foden-Palmer dilemma

WELL, England have qualified for the World Cup — so it must be time to start panicking.

It’s a grand tradition in this nation to worry our wotsits off over whether star players will be fit and present for a major tournament.

The broken metatarsals suffered by David Beckham before the 2002 World Cup and Wayne Rooney four years later left us publishing cut-out prayer mats in this paper.

As it turned out, those prayers were only partially answered — Beckham went to Japan and Rooney to Germany but neither were at their best and Rooney was red-carded in a quarter-final defeat by Portugal.

Those of us with longer memories can recall Kevin Keegan and Trevor Brooking turning up half-fit for the 1982 World Cup, then plenty of mithering about Bryan Robson’s dodgy shoulder.

Last summer, Harry Kane went to the Euros struggling for fitness and, though he toiled all the way to the final, he was a shadow of the player now tearing it up again for Bayern Munich and England.

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Hopefully we won’t need any divine intervention over Kane’s well-being next summer but what about England’s other undoubted world star, Jude Bellingham?

And the possibility that the Real Madrid Galactico might not be in America?

Not for any fitness reason but because there is a genuine chance Thomas Tuchel may not pick him. Such a scenario really shouldn’t be thinkable.

Bellingham is a Champions League winner and a leading light at the mightiest club on Earth. He has been a game-changer for England in tournaments and has won 44 caps by the age of 22.

And yet Tuchel’s team have looked better without him. And they have looked better without Cole Palmer. And without Phil Foden, too.

At last summer’s Euros, Bellingham and Foden were crowbarred into the same team by former manager Gareth Southgate — and looked like they needed one football apiece, while Palmer’s position  on the bench was much lamented by the nation.

But by happy accident — injuries to Bellingham and Palmer, a cliff-dive in form for Foden — Tuchel has happened upon the solution to all this. Don’t play any of them.

Had he been in charge of England’s Golden Generation, maybe Tuchel would have ditched Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard.

After a pretty turgid opening five matches of his reign, the German saw an inspired England hammer Serbia 5-0 away, before the same scoreline in Latvia secured a place at next summer’s Bonnie Blue-style 104-match orgy of football.

Morgan Rogers — a close friend of Belllingham — was instrumental in Serbia, as well as in the 3-0 friendly defeat of Wales, and is the man in possession at No 10.

Tuchel appeared irritated every time that Bellingham’s name was mentioned during this last international break.

Fair enough, he was focused on the players who were in camp and who have scored 13 unanswered goals in three straight victories.

But the question of Tuchel’s attitude towards Bellingham remains a thorny one.

In a now infamous talkSPORT interview, the day after England’s shock friendly defeat by Senegal in June, Tuchel’s headline quote was his mother sometimes found Bellingham ‘repulsive’ when she watched him on TV.

We can only imagine the Vesuvian response to this from Bellingham’s father Mark — Britain’s angriest man — to that little pearler.

Tuchel apologised profusely for the soundbite but — given that the opinion of his mum is not particularly relevant — the more interesting quote from that same interview was the England chief’s impression  Bellingham can often intimidate his own team-mates.

It was not an uncommon opinion. Bellingham’s most significant moment in an England shirt — the astonishing injury-time bicycle-kick equaliser to avert disaster against Slovakia at the Euros — was celebrated by the player mouthing, “Who else?”.

It seemed to confirm the idea that Bellingham can be a man apart in an otherwise tight-knit England squad.

Those who know Bellingham  — and the nation doesn’t know him, because his father ensures he rarely speaks publicly — say that he is bright and likeable.

Tuchel says as much himself and yet, having decided to stick with the winning team from that five-star display at the home of Red Star Belgrade, he opted not to select Bellingham at all this month.

After two substitute appearances for Real following a shoulder op, Bellingham had declared himself fit and available.

Yet if Bellingham is not a definite starter, why have him in the squad? He is not the definition of a “good tourist”, happy to play  a bit-part role.

So, while next month’s qualifiers against Serbia and Albania are now dead rubbers for England, it will be intriguing to see whether Tuchel selects his main man.

And it will be a good indicator as to whether Bellingham is nailed-on for America. Tuchel is a ballsy man who has a history of falling out with people.

There is little sentimentality about him. Like all of the best bosses, he craves success over popularity.

And his status as a just-passing-through manager who will be gone after the World Cup, means he has no concern with any future fallout if Bellingham were omitted.

In a knockout match against Brazil, Argentina, France or Spain, it would seem criminal not to have Bellingham available.

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And if he enjoys a brilliant season at the Bernabeu, then there surely can be no ignoring him.

If not, then Bellingham may be needing one of those prayer mats for himself.