Ranking England’s nine possible replacements for a crocked Declan Rice | OneFootball

“I would never take him out normally,” said Thomas Tuchel after subbing Declan Rice off in the 71st minute against Croatia, in what now represents the greatest England worry on their otherwise inexorable path to World Cup glory.

Tuchel later confirmed he was just “protecting” him and that Rice “reassured me at the end it’s good”, before Rice himself looked to alleviate concerns.

“All good – good as gold,” he said. “Just what I’ve been nursing probably in the second half of the season at Arsenal. Little neural pains here and there. But yeah, I’m all good. All fine, just precaution. I’ll be back out there against Ghana.”

Rice played the full 90 minutes in 29 of Arsenal’s Premier League games this season and every minute of their knockout games in the Champions League.

In the second half of the season, while nursing this back problem, aside from the dead rubber against Crystal Palace when they had already won the league, Rice missed just 40 minutes of football in the Premier League and Champions League – 26 minutes in a 2-1 win over Chelsea when he asked to be substituted with what we assume is the same niggle and 14 minutes at the end of a victory over Fulham when they were already 3-0 up.

He’s the guy neither Mikel Arteta nor Tuchel will do without; certainly not with the game in the balance in the first game of a major tournament. This is clearly a problem.

He could be rested for Ghana on Tuesday and/or Panama on Saturday, or we could – God forbid – face the knockouts without him if he plays in those games and is crocked further.

In any case, Tuchel needs a replacement, and we’ve ranked the nine genuine-ish options he has available to him, from worst to best.

9) Harry Kane

“He’s always in midfield anyway so why don’t we just bloody well play him there?” says the six-deep pal down the pub you can’t be bothered to disagree with.

The “he could still take his penalties and score headers from corners” argument is – in fairness – quite persuasive, but the thought of Kane running this way and that, putting out fires, intercepting the ball and charging into tackles is making us feel tired, let alone him. We suspect he would be sent off after an hour if his body doesn’t shut down before that.

8) Trevoh Chalobah

The late call-up to the squad has played 90 of his 275 senior club games in midfield. Who knew? Fans of Ipswich and Huddersfield presumably. None of whom – with all due respect – would have predicted the then-Championship loanee would wind up playing in midfield for England at a World Cup.

7) Eberechi Eze

There might come a time in this World Cup when Eze is brought on to play as a box-to-box midfielder, but frankly, we hope we never reach what would have to be desperate circumstances.

His lack of game time for Arsenal this season was largely down to his lack of intensity off the ball and that’s a non-negotiable in Tuchel’s England XI.

6) John Stones

We certainly haven’t forgotten his near-perfect displays in the 2023 Champions League semi-final second leg against Real Madrid and the final against Inter Milan, but it’s been a very long – if unproductive – three years since then for Stones, in which time he’s started just 23 Premier League games.

It wasn’t entirely clear in the win over Croatia if he still has it in him to play at centre-back, let alone in the hustle and bustle of midfield.

5) Nico O’Reilly

Referred to in Manchester City quarters as a Swiss Army Knife having been used in multiple positions by Pep Guardiola this season, including in midfield as a replacement for arguably the greatest central midfielder of the last decade, Rodri.

What’s good enough for City and Guardiola should probably be good enough for England and Tuchel, and anyone doubting his maturity to play in what would be a high-profile game in high-profile circumstances as Rice’s replacement can’t have seen him play much this season.

But Tuchel would of course then be denying England O’Reilly’s quality at left-back and after leaving Lewis Hall at home, we can’t tolerate any switches that could result in Dan Burn playing at full-back.

4) Jude Bellingham

There’s an obvious ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ point to be made here. Bellingham was excellent in the No.10 role against Croatia, and far less effective when he was briefly dropped deeper following Rice’s injury.

There will be a temptation in what we suspect will be more simple games against Ghana and Panama to get as much firepower in the team as possible, in which case Bellingham playing as a No.8 behind Morgan Rogers makes a lot of sense. But Tuchel has so far made tactical calls to benefit the synergy of his team as a whole rather than squeezing five or six game-changers into the XI and hoping they gel sufficiently to get results.

3) Kobbie Mainoo

We took great joy in Manchester United Twitter and one particularly high-profile influencer deciding before a ball was kicked that Tuchel was making a grave error in selecting Elliot Anderson over Mainoo and being buoyed to further push that claim after a less than convincing first half from England, only for Anderson to put in one of the most commanding and assured displays after the break to assert his and the team’s dominance.

Should Rice take on similar responsibility to Sir Alex Ferguson or Logan Roy in choosing his replacement, Mainoo is sh*t out of luck as the Arsenal man is ‘sceptical about his productivity off the ball’, and beautiful to watch though Man Utd man is, we know where Rice is coming from. He’s always graceful when sometimes a game calls for grit.

2) Jordan Henderson

Tuchel feels like he can still do a job in there and we’ve not seen anything from Henderson at Brentford to give us cause to doubt that assertion, try as we might to uncover doubts after his Saudi Pro League sojourn.

It would leave us all feeling rather disheartened and disappointed, and there’s a fair chance his ageing legs would come a cropper against serious opposition, but for Ghana or Panama he’s a solid option.

1) Reece James

Tuchel wasn’t initially convinced by James playing as a No.6 having watched him play there for Chelsea under Enzo Maresca.

“I still feel he is a player for the full-back and wing-back positions,” the German boss said in March 2025. “I think we have enough players in central midfield who are more specialists there.”

There’s no doubt he’s grown into the role at Chelsea and – at his best – has gone toe-to-toe with some elite central midfielders this season, including against Rice in the 1-1 draw with Arsenal in November, when he controlled the game, even after midfield partner Moises Caicedo had been sent off.

“He can produce special moments any time,” Tuchel said after the win over Croatia. “He has the body to defend at the highest level and the physicality. So it’s a full package. He gives us flexibility because he plays many times for Chelsea as a [number] six, so he is a candidate to play there as well. Right full-back is his main position for us, but he stays and is an alternative in the middle of the pitch.”

An alternative that Tuchel preferred ahead of Kobbie Mainoo, Jordan Henderson and others when it came to it against Croatia, and there’s certainly a case to be made for James having the most similar attributes to Rice.

Assuming Tuchel wants a ball-playing beast alongside Elliot Anderson, the Chelsea captain is his best option; one made more likely by Djed Spence’s outstanding cameo in James’ stead at right-back.