Tuchel says Bellingham must fight for England starting spot

England manager Thomas Tuchel says Jude Bellingham must fight for his starting spot in the England XI.

Tuchel has a stacked squad, but said Bellingham is among 14 or 15 players who are among his ‘starters’.

Asked if Bellingham has a fight on his hands to be in the starting XI, Tuchel said: “Yes, he has. He is one of the starters, he knows he is one of the starters, but we have 14 or 15 potential starters.

“These roles can always change, but at the moment I think there are 14 or 15 proper starters and Jude is one of them.”

Bellingham played 45 minutes in the 1-0 friendly win over New Zealand last week, and Tuchel said after the game: “You can see Jude has for sure the decisiveness and bite. This is his key characteristic, but you can see that he comes from an injury and is full of energy and happy to be back on the pitch.

“He had his break, unfortunately, in a decisive part of the season, the Champions League season and campaign for the championship in Spain, so this was very unfortunate for Real Madrid and for him personally.

“But you can see now that he is actually in a sweet spot. He comes back, he’s fresh, he wants to play and he’s in top shape.”