Danny Welbeck in England’s World Cup squad? All your questions answered | OneFootball

England have submitted their provisional 2026 World Cup squad to FIFA and that is obviously exciting news.

Especially as, while this provisional list of names isn’t made public, we do have a few enticing names that have been leaked.

Most excitingly, thosee leaked names include one Danny Welbeck. Here’s all you need to know.

Wait, Danny Welbeck is in the England squad? That’s lovely news.

Whoa, there. Rewind. Yes and no. Monday marked the deadline by which England boss Thomas Tuchel had to submit his provisional World Cup squad to FIFA.

There is little real fanfare around these first squads, and for very good reason.

Why is there little real fanfare then, smartarse?

Because these provisional squads aren’t fully publicised, but more importantly can contain up to 55 names. That’s even more than an England Ladder. And, because Thomas Tuchel is a coward who doesn’t understand our ways and customs, he probably didn’t even put Phil Neville in there.

Why does Tuchel have to name a 55-man World Cup squad?

Is the main and correct question at this point. He doesn’t have to name 55. But, with the tournament now just a month away, he does have to give FIFA some kind of list of names.

Every qualified team is required to name a provisional squad a month out from the tournament. This is primarily for dull admin purposes – passport details, player release, anti-doping protocols and other dreary but very necessary pen-pushing stuff. But, crucially, that list doesn’t actually have to contain 55 names if you don’t want it to. It can be anywhere from 35 to 55, with a minimum of four designated goalkeepers, but there’s quite literally no downside to filling the 55. Even if it is with Phil Neville.

Stop talking about Phil Neville.

Sorry.

But Danny Welbeck is in this squad?

So the leaks suggest. Along with Jarrad Branthwaite and Luke Shaw. But, and we cannot stress this enough, that doesn’t really equate to a significant improvement of their chances of making the final squad.

All Tuchel is really doing is keeping his options as open as possible by using his full 55-man quota because, well, why not? But over half the names on this list will be cut when the final squad is named.

It’s eight years, for instance, since Welbeck won the last of his 42 England caps, but he was also on Gareth Southgate’s 55-man longlist ahead of Qatar 2022.

Where can we see all the full provisional squads?

You can’t. FIFA don’t publish them, and individual nations are under no obligation to do so – although some do opt to release the information.

So we don’t actually know for sure who’s in the England provisional squad?

No, only what we can glean from leaks. And, of course, that there’s about 40 or so names we can all pretty confidently guess are in the 55 based on squads Tuchel has selected over the last 12 months.

The leaked names from England so far being Welbeck, Shaw and Branthwaite makes perfect sense when you think about it. All are high-profile players, but all now for assorted reasons very much on the fringes of England selection.

None have been in recent squads, so their presence here is far more eye-catching than the obvious inclusions.

Who are the obvious inclusions?

Well you are welcome as ever to agree or disagree with the latest divinations of the England Ladder – and it was published over a month ago and thus already to some extent overtaken by events – but you can probably take the top 40 as being a pretty safe set of names for the 55, with the top 15 or so pretty safe bets for the final 26, injury unpleasantness permitting. We don’t think, say, Harry Kane or Declan Rice or Jordan Pickford are particularly sweating on a phone call from Thomas at this time.

It does inevitably get less certain the further down the list you go, but that’s all part of the fun.

What about players from outside the provisional squad? Can they still be called up?

Nope. Hence the lengthy longlists. The names submitted by all 48 competing countries on Monday are the only ones now eligible to play at the World Cup this summer. One notable confirmed absentee, for instance, is Argentina’s Paulo Dybala.

His name being missing from the defending champions’ provisional squad is no seismic shock – he hasn’t played international football for almost two years now – but does confirm that a 40-cap veteran of two World Cups will not be in North America this summer.

Boo. How many in the final squads then?

As has become customary in recent tournaments, every team can name a final 26-man squad for the World Cup itself.

Or, to be precise, every team will name a final squad up to 26 strong. The minimum is 23 – which used to be the maximum before 2022.

Whether the squad contains 23, 26 or anything in between, it has to include three goalkeepers.

When are the final 26-man World Cup squads named?

Whenever you want, pretty much, as long as it’s before June 2. Bosnia, for instance, have already publicly named a 26-man squad. Argentina published the full details of their 55-man preliminary group, while Uzbekistan named a 40-strong provisional squad last week.

Most teams plan to announce a 26-man squad at some point over the next couple of weeks. England’s plan is to make their 26-man announcement just before the final weekend of the Premier League season – which seems unnecessarily bold – with a Friday May 22 release currently slated.

But any squad named over the next couple of weeks is still officially considered provisional, only becoming final and official when confirmed by FIFA themselves, which for all competing countries will take place on June 2.

What happens if a player does suffer late knack after the World Cup squad has been confirmed? Can they be replaced?

They can indeed. With FIFA approval any injured or ill player can be replaced by any other player from the provisional list up to 24 hours before a team’s first World Cup match. For England, in Group L and thus one of the last countries to get under way, that means 9pm UK time on June 16.

FIFA’s Medical Committee have the authority to determine whether the injury or illness is sufficiently severe to justify a replacement, but in practice a pre-tournament replacement is almost never denied. On the few occasions such instances have occurred at major tournaments, it’s usually for good old-fashioned reasons of red-tape and incorrectly followed procedures rather than any suspicion of sharp practice around the change itself.

What about after the tournament has begun? Can replacements still be called up?

They cannot. That deadline of 24 hours before your first game is a point of no return. After that, you must make do with the players you have regardless of any misfortunes you suffer.

The only exception here is for goalkeepers. Again only with FIFA’s permission, an injured goalkeeper can be replaced after the tournament has begun. But only by another designated goalkeeper, and only from the provisional list. While it was under the auspices of UEFA rather than FIFA, it was this same rule that allowed Aaron Ramsdale to be drafted into England’s Euro 2020 squad after Dean Henderson suffered a hip injury.

So, in summary, Danny Welbeck probably isn’t going to the World Cup?

Probably not, no. Sorry about that.