Thomas Tuchel has insisted Harry Maguire will "always be in contention" for England despite overlooking the Manchester United defender for his first two games in charge.
The 32-year-old was a key member of Gareth Southgate's set-up, playing in three major tournaments before missing last year's Euros through injury.
But the defender was not selected for Tuchel's first two matches in charge of England – their World Cup qualifying wins over Albania and Latvia – following a fitness issue sustained at the start of March.
🫂🏴 Thomas Tuchel: “I know Reece James, the foot and the quality he has is amazing”.
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) March 25, 2025
“He has every right to be proud and happy. He’s in excellence shape. He looks sharp. The quality… there cannot be any doubt”. pic.twitter.com/YwnjM4IQHy
"I spoke to everyone who was not nominated and was on the (long) list," the England coach said when asked about the 64-cap defender. "I spoke to all of them to give them my direct feedback, why this is. It was a close decision.
"We chose Marc Guehi and Ezri Konsa. At the moment I think they are a little bit in a better rhythm and deserve to be with us, so two right-footers in central defence and the rest was left-footers in central defence."
Asked if he regarded Maguire as being fit, Tuchel said: "Yeah, but the second reason was that he was not fit when we did the nomination (selected the squad).
"It was presumed that he can play but I didn't want to take the risk to nominate a player in which we have to take care in the first training, second training and constantly need to assess if he can do full training session, half training session."
The German added: "We did the same with Reece James and only for the feedback that he can do every session full was the reason that we brought him into camp.
"Harry knows that. It's not so easy at the moment for him in the club. He plays in a back three on top of it but, listen, he's a top professional, he's very important, he was very important for England.
"He took it unbelievably well. He wrote me messages to wish us good luck, so you see what a person he is, a top guy. He will always be in contention."