Thomas Tuchel held ‘intense’ and ’emotional’ discussions before announcing his squad for England’s upcoming World Cup 2026 qualifiers and admitted leaving out players who ‘deserved’ a call-up. The German, who takes charge of his first game on March 21 against Albania, named a 26-man roster which included a shock recall for Jordan Henderson and return of Marcus Rashford for the first time in two years. Dan Burn and Myles Lewis-Skelly are also in line to receive their first caps for the Three Lions. The former Chelsea boss, who took charge officially in January on an 18-month contract, gave some insight into the conversations that took place behind the scenes with his staff.

“We had some emotional debates, intense debates, very hard decisions,” Tuchel said at his first press conference since his unveiling. “Some are more obvious, others maybe a little bit more hidden but there are very, very close decisions. There are some players not in the squad who absolutely did enough and deserve to be in the squad. But it comes with the job, everyone talks about it and everyone has a strong opinion about it. That’s fair enough.”

While he refused to divulge further, Tuchel may well have been referring to Conor Gallagher. The ex-Chelsea man a surprise name to be dropped from the England squad despite featuring at Euro 2024 and impressing for Atletico Madrid of late. Ben Chillwell, now fit after leaving Chelsea to join Crystal Palace on loan in January, was snubbed in favour of Lewis-Skelly, 18, being called up.

There was also some consternation that Liam Delap, one of the country’s most exciting attacking talents with 10 goals in the Premier League, was not given a first call-up. Instead, players such as Dominic Solanke and Phil Foden have been handed a place in the squad.

Henderson’s return was certainly not on the cards given that the 81-cap midfielder has been in and out of the Ajax team. But Tuchel believes the 34-year-old – along with uncapped centre-back Burn – can bring their wealth of experience to balance out the young squad.

“With Jordan, I think this is an easy one. First of all, he is captain of Ajax, he’s available and played a lot of matches until yesterday,” Tuchel added. “What he brings to every team is leadership, his character, personality, energy, makes sure that everyone lives by the standard, and with his characteristics, he embodies everything what we’re trying to do. We try to build a team for our fans and build a team our fans are proud of, that they can identify with. Hopefully an exciting watch on the way and Jordan embodies everything we want to be.”

On Burn’s long-awaited potential debut, he added: “I was surprised that Dan was never called up, he’s such a tall guy! But obviously it’s not easy to overlook him. It almost happened to me. If you see these two phone calls [made to Burn and Henderson], Jordan’s natural reaction and the reaction from Dan Burn, you instantly know that you picked the right guys.”

England face Albania at Wembley on Friday, March 21 before facing Latvia three days later at the same venue, with Tuchel looking to make a winning start to his reign.