Thomas Tuchel explains why he called up Trevoh Chalobah to England’s World Cup squad | OneFootball

Thomas Tuchel has explained his decision to call up Chelsea defender Trevoh Chalobah to England’s 2026 World Cup squad following an injury to full-back Tino Livramento.

Livramento sustained a calf injury in training at England’s Kansas City base over the weekend and had to withdraw from the squad.

Tuchel could have called up a raft of other full-back options, including Real Madrid’s Trent Alexander-Arnold, Arsenal’s Myles Lewis-Skelly and Newcastle’s Lewis Hall.

However the England manager chose to bring Chalobah, a centre-back, into the fold.

The decision would appear to leave England light in certain areas of the squad, with only Reece James, Nico O’Reilly and Djed Spence as orthodox full-backs. But Tuchel insisted the Bayer Leverkusen centre-back Jarell Quansah can fill in.

“Tino has an injury of four or five weeks which is unfortunately too long to reintegrate him into the squad,” Tuchel said.

“We called Trevoh Chalobah because it frees up Jarrell Quansah to play full-back on both sides, and Djed Spence can play full-back on both sides, so it gives us full coverage in defence.”

Thomas Tuchel and Harry Kane speak to the media before England's opening game (Reuters)

England take on Croatia in the Dallas Stadium on Wednesday as they bid to get their World Cup off to the best possible start in Group L.