Thomas Tuchel’s World Cup injury problems worsened after Jarell Quansah was forced of the field with an issue during the game against Panama. The Bayer Leverkusen defender had been filling in at right back after Reece James was ruled out due to injury.
Quansah limped from the field during the second period against Panama, to be replaced by Djed Spence. The England star quickly called for the physios to come onto the pitch after committing a foul.
The former Liverpool defender picked up a yellow card for his coming together with Jose Luis Rodriguez, but there will be greater concern for his condition given the Three Lions’ limited full-back options. Spence is the squad’s only remaining natural full-back on the right, but has been more regularly utilised on the left side of the pitch.
James is unlikely to be fit in time for the round of 32, while Newcastle defender Tino Livramento was sent home due to injury before getting on the pitch in the United States. Tuchel opted to replace him with Chelsea’s Trevoh Chalobah, a centre-back.
Speaking ahead of the game, Gary Neville raised his concerns of Quansah lining up in an unfamiliar position. “The one position I think I am pretty qualified to speak on is right back and if you had said to me a couple of months ago that Quansah would be playing right-back for England in a tournament, I would say something has gone badly wrong,” he said.
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“He’s picked Reece James and Livramento, players who are injury prone. He’s not brought Trent Alexander-Arnold, who obvously is someone with world class quality, for what reasons we can only imagine.
“That is where we are right now, England will win this group and win this game but there is some turbulence in there.”
“Djed Spence is the only real option at right-back,” he continued. “Quansah is not an option going into the games further into the tournament, so I think the reasons he has probably done it today are he is thinking ‘look, we can handle Panama, Quansah can play there, and Spence can come in for the 32’.”
View 2 ImagesJarell Quansah was replaced in the second half(Image: Photo by Patrick Smith – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)
Following news of James’ injury, Tuchel outlined a number of options but Quansah appeared to have been near the top of his list. “We will find solutions,” he said.
“The thinking of calling Chalobah to free up Quansah on the right full-back position for us. I saw him playing very strongly there playing for Liverpool and he played enough in a back three – which is not so far from the position – in Leverkusen. And we have Djed Spence.
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“Konsa played in that right-back position as well for us on a high level. No problem. We would love to have Reece as a key player, but he’s not available.”
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