FIFA\u2019s expansion to 26-man squads has not prevented a long list of high-profile absences from the 2026 World Cup. Managers cited form, fitness and tactical balance when leaving established players at home.<\/p>\n
Cole Palmer failed to make England\u2019s 26-man roster after a difficult season at Chelsea influenced by a nagging groin problem. Thomas Tuchel was blunt: \u201cHe [Palmer] was not as decisive or as influential as he was in the last seasons, throughout the whole season.\u201d \u201cSecond of all, he was not very influential with us.\u201d Palmer has scored twice in 14 caps and has appeared just three times for the national team since Tuchel took charge.<\/p>\n
Phil Foden\u2019s omission followed public criticism in March. Tuchel praised Foden\u2019s training but warned he \u201cstruggles to show it on the pitch.\u201d With Jude Bellingham established as undroppable, Tuchel opted against selecting the Manchester City playmaker after a quiet 2026.<\/p>\n
Harry Maguire, despite a resurgent club campaign and a recall for March friendlies, was left \u201cshocked and gutted\u201d after being omitted. Tuchel instead trusted John Stones, while Jarell Quansah was a surprise inclusion and Marc Gu\u00e9hi is likely to partner Ezri Konsa.<\/p>\n
Trent Alexander-Arnold, used unsuccessfully in midfield at Euro 2024, has featured only once since Tuchel assumed control and was not picked. His passing range was noted, but the manager chose to avoid the potential tactical complications.<\/p>\n
France left out Eduardo Camavinga amid concerns about injuries and focus, with Didier Deschamps selecting Adrien Rabiot and a 35-year-old N\u2019Golo Kant\u00e9.<\/p>\n
Jeremie Frimpong\u2019s regular injury pattern and inconsistent role at Liverpool influenced Ronald Koeman. \u201cIt is the pattern of this season that he has been injured regularly. Against Ecuador, he came on as a substitute and was taken off again very quickly. \u201cThat is a physical issue, but I also chose someone else as right winger\u2014[Crysencio] Summerville. That comes as no surprise to me, because I wanted to select him back in March. \u201cI like those kinds of players, players who are reliable in their game. He can also play very well on the right side, but he is particularly good in his work ethic.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dean Huijsen, Mateus Fernandes, Franco Mastantuono, Paulo Dybala and Jo\u00e3o Pedro also missed out for a mix of competition for places, indifferent club seasons or limited national-team minutes. Carlo Ancelotti admitted Pedro \u201dprobably deserved\u201d to be included, but selected other options with Neymar returning and Igor Thiago given a chance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Thirteen notable players omitted from 2026 World Cup squads, with omissions explained by form injury.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14163,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[190,961,175,987],"tags":[1305,1304,1558],"class_list":["post-14164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea","category-international","category-liverpool","category-real-madrid","tag-bench-selection","tag-benching","tag-brazil"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14164\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}