Thomas Tuchel names his squad at 10am local time on Friday, 18 September, a week out from World Cup winners Spain at Wembley. It is the head coach’s first selection since a third-place finish in the summer, and the first competitive test of what an England team without a good chunk of last season’s noise will look like.
The 2026-27 Nations League group is not gentle. England open at home to Spain on Saturday 26 September at 7:45pm local time, then travel to Prague to face Czechia three days later, before a trip to Rijeka against Croatia on 3 October. Recalls in this window matter.
Five names outside the summer 26 keep coming up in the run-up to Friday.
Cole Palmer is scoring again for Chelsea
The most talked-about omission from Tuchel’s World Cup squad has quietly done what recalls are made of. Cole Palmer has been directly involved in six goals across his opening six matches for Chelsea this season, according to bet365.
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Palmer, 24, was left out of the summer squad after a difficult stretch of form and fitness at Stamford Bridge. His last club run had turned that around before the international break, and the case for reintegrating a creative Chelsea number 10 is different in September than it was in May.
Lewis Hall, the left-back Tuchel keeps circling back to
Lewis Hall was described by Football365 as an “unfortunate” World Cup omission, and the Newcastle left-back has kept up the club form that made his snub arguments so persistent.
Hall, 22, is the type of solution Tuchel has cycled through at left-back without ever settling on one player. Nico O’Reilly took the shirt during the last camp; Hall is next in line if the head coach wants a more defensive profile against a Spain side that specialises in overloading full-backs.
Jarrad Branthwaite is fit and starting again
The Everton centre-back’s problem has never been the level, only the availability. Branthwaite made just 10 appearances across all competitions last season after a series of hamstring injuries, according to Football Insider, but has started the new campaign fit for the first time in a year.
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Everton scout Bryan King told Football Insider that Branthwaite’s early-season form “could even put him back into consideration for Thomas Tuchel’s England squad.” The 24-year-old has not been capped, and Tuchel was in the stands for Everton’s goalless draw with Tottenham earlier this month.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin is the No. 9 nobody expected
The Kane understudy conversation had gone quiet until Leeds rebuilt around a striker who had spent two seasons chasing his old level. Dominic Calvert-Lewin, 29, is off to a start that has already prompted Rob Edwards on Sky Sports to float a 20-goal season, per bet365.
Tuchel called him up in March; a second look in September would not be a surprise. Ollie Watkins and Marcus Rashford are still the natural back-up profiles behind Harry Kane, but a target man scoring in a promoted-side setup fills a gap in the squad that the World Cup exposed.
Rio Ngumoha, the teenager Liverpool are protecting
If Tuchel wants a headline, the 18-year-old Liverpool forward is the one. Rio Ngumoha has been named by Sports Mole among the outside contenders “who could sneak into the final Three Lions squad” for the September-October window.
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England went to the World Cup without a Liverpool player for the first time in 40 years, a run Anfield is unlikely to enjoy repeating. Ngumoha has appeared once already in this season’s Champions League and remains uncapped at senior level. A first squad inclusion, rather than a start, is the realistic call.
Tuchel confirms his squad at 10am on Friday. Kick-off against Spain at Wembley is 7:45pm local time on Saturday 26 September.
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