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Rice update as Tuchel reveals why England star was subbed at half-time
Jul 12 2026 08:48 · By Ryan Taylor · 44 Reads
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Thomas Tuchel has revealed Declan Rice spent the past few days in bed due to sickness.
The England midfielder has been suffering with a bug but was able to play the first 45 minutes of England's 2-1 World Cup quarter-final victory over
Norway
in Miami.
He was then withdrawn at the break and Tuchel has confirmed he was one of several stars that struggled in the heat and humidity in Florida.
Tuchel said: "We made life for ourself complicated, we had some players struggling with the heat. Ezri Konsa was one of them, cramps in his hamstring and with Declan, we made the decision to go more offensive at half-time.
"It was a bit of an offensive shift. I made the decision at 1-0 down and didn't want to go back on the decision. Even after the equaliser I thought this was the right signal to the team, to take up higher positions and more connections when Norway defends in a deep block.
"It's about being closer to your opponents box, so we put in Ebs [Eberechi Eze] and Bukayo [Saka] and that meant we had to take Dec or Elliot [Anderson] out.
"Knowing that Declan struggles after the last three days, he was most of the time in bed, I knew he could not survive the 90 minutes.
"I also knew there was the possibility of 120 so I didn't want to waste another change so I made the decision to take Declan out to avoid another change further on."
Tuchel did also add that England - despite flying back to Kansas City - will now significantly reduce their training schedule as they prepare to enter the final week of the World Cup.
He explained ahead of Wednesday's semi-final: "They have to, no doubt about it. Our level of training will now go down. The next few days are crucial. We have another.
"This victory will help a lot. We have a top facility to recover at the highest level."
There was positive news on the fitness front though as
Reece James
was back on the pitch for the first time since the 0-0 draw with
Ghana
.
Bukayo Saka
also excelled from the bench.
Jordan
Henderson actually took part in England's pre-match warm-up, laying off the forward players for shots at goal.
He kitted up and was named on the bench, though was never realistically going to feature following surgery on his wrist.