Following England's impressive 4-2 victory over Croatia in their opening match of the FIFA World Cup 2026 on Wednesday, manager Thomas Tuchel has arranged a special training opportunity for the players who saw limited or no action.
The England squad returned to their base in Kansas City after the game in Dallas. Tuchel is prioritizing "extra match loading for the 13 players who did not feature significantly against Croatia, giving them the chance to train and play against MLS side Sporting Kansas City on Thursday. The session is not expected to be a full 90-minute formal match.
Bukayo Saka, Eberechi Eze to feature for England
The players who did not participate in Wednesday's game include goalkeepers Dean Henderson and James Trafford, defenders Jarrell Quansah and Dan Burn, midfielder Jordan
Henderson, and forwards Ollie Watkins and Ivan Toney. Kobbie Mainoo and Eberechi Eze also played no part. Those who entered as second-half substitutes - Morgan Rogers, Bukayo Saka, Marcus Rashford, Djed Spence, and Marc Guehi, will likely join the group. Rashford scored England's fourth goal, assisted by Saka.
England has four days in Kansas City before traveling to Boston for their next Group stage match against Ghana on Tuesday. This follows a similar approach used earlier in camp, when England played an informal friendly against USL Championship side Miami FC, winning 6-0 over two 25-minute halves.
Sporting Kansas City, currently on a break from the 2026 MLS season due to the World Cup, has been training for the past six days. The club sits second-last in the MLS standings with 11 points from 14 games as it undergoes a major roster rebuild under sporting director David Lee. The squad includes Serbian international forward Dejan Joveljic.
Tuchel had previewed the plan ahead of the Croatia match: "It's true that we try to play an in-house match after the Croatia match. We have many days between matches, we can give the players who will not play so many minutes tomorrow extra match loading, not only loading from training.
The Three Lions have made a winning start and would be hoping to continue their form in the upcoming games.
