Pickford, Stones, Rice, Kane: Can one of football’s strongest spines make it to the World Cup injury-free? – The Athletic

The first phase of the Thomas Tuchel era is over. England have completed their long tour of Europe, booked their place at next summer’s World Cup, and did not even drop a point or concede a goal in doing so. The next time they play a competitive match will be seven months from now, in their opening group-phase match at that World Cup.

After a slow start when he began work in January this year, Tuchel has built an impressively powerful team, one that plays with purpose, focus and drive. By the full-time whistle of their final qualifier against Albania in Tirana on Sunday, there was a profound sense of relief and pride as they embraced one another and went over to take the applause of the travelling England fans. They look like they know that they are for real, and that they will fly to the United States in June with a tangible chance of a strong campaign.

But to watch them play is to see clearly what their strength is, a strength that could in time be exposed as a flaw.

This is a team strikingly dependent on its strong spine, a core of players who cannot be replaced: Jordan Pickford, John Stones, Declan Rice and Harry Kane.

Those are the players Tuchel must be especially hoping do not pick up injuries between now and then. They are the players whose England World Cup 2026 prospects depend on.

Even England’s best players in other roles have plausible backups. Reece James is a very good right-back but there are others who can play that position. Elliot Anderson has started very well in midfield but there is Adam Wharton. Bukayo Saka is one of England’s best but when he’s fit Noni Madueke is a very able deputy, just as he is for his Arsenal team-mate at club level. If Marcus Rashford cannot play, Anthony Gordon or Eberechi Eze could slot straight in.

Kane, Stones and Pickford chat on the pitch in Tirana before Sunday evening’s game (Alex Pantling/Getty Images)

But it is the spine of the team where England have no obvious replacements, little that you could call a robust Plan B if disaster struck. And not only for what they do on the pitch either, but for the way Stones, Rice and Kane especially set the tone off it.

This is just the nature of international football, and especially international football in England. We have spent most of the past few months talking about players who are either on the fringes of this squad or not even that. Last night was Jude Bellingham’s first England start since June. Phil Foden has still not begun an international since March. Cole Palmer, out injured since September, has only made one England appearance in 13 months.

With so much attention on these marginal decisions between attacking players, we risk missing the importance of the players who are always there, the ones who will have the biggest roles next year in the States, Canada and Mexico.

Pickford got a rest on Sunday evening but has still started eight out of Tuchel’s 10 games, missing only the end-of-season Senegal friendly in June and this dead rubber. Dean Henderson did very well in his stead in Tirana and kept a clean sheet, but there is no debate about who England’s first-choice goalkeeper is. Pickford has been almost perfect in four consecutive tournaments, and they will need him at his best at his fifth come the summer.

Perhaps even more important than Pickford is Stones. He missed Tuchel’s first three camps with injuries, and was lined up to step into midfield for the crucial Serbia away game in the September one.

That finally happened on Sunday, as England played a 3-2-2-3 system in possession in the first half, Stones pushed up from centre-back alongside Wharton. Even though England struggled, Stones was remarkably good. Watching him always on the move, always showing for the ball, directing his team-mates in play, swapping with more advanced midfielders, popping up as a No 8, was to see someone who plays the game on a different level.

England’s players celebrate with the travelling fans after completing a perfect qualifying campaign (Adnan Beci/AFP via Getty Images)

If England are playing under high pressure next summer, against elite opposition, in stifling heat, they will be half the team if Stones is not there. He has a presence, quality and quiet charisma that sets him apart.

And yet there are still two players even more important than Stones.

Rice has started nine of Tuchel’s 10 games so far, coming on in the other. He still seems to be growing in importance to this side, becoming their driving force in the middle of the pitch and their set-piece specialist. He looks even better than he did before now that he has Anderson alongside him, getting the ball from the defence, filling in those gaps Rice leaves behind.

England have nobody else who can do what Rice does. Bellingham started off in Gareth Southgate’s side as a box-to-box midfielder, playing there at the previous World Cup in 2022, but clearly Tuchel now sees him operating closer to the opposition goal. Rice has also grown in stature behind the scenes in recent months, becoming one of the group’s leading voices, starting to look like a senior player at the age of 26.

And then there is Kane.

What else is there to say about the man who scored eight of England’s 22 goals this campaign, and now has 78 in his 112-cap international career? He is playing better than ever before at 32, reaching a new level of mastery in terms of his touch, awareness and goalscoring. He is an even better player now than he was when he left the Premier League for Germany’s Bayern Munich in summer 2023. It is not just that there is no one else like him in England. There is barely anyone else like him in the world.

England’s captain now has 78 goals for his country (Adnan Beci/AFP via Getty Images)

Kane has been dreadfully unlucky in recent years with minor injuries that have blunted his edge in tournament years. The most important thing for England in the second half of this season is that he should avoid them this time. If he arrives at the World Cup playing like he is now, England will have a chance in every game they play.

Beyond that, Kane is an underrated leader, someone who has been captain for almost eight years now and has grown into the role. Even under Tuchel, his leadership appears to have developed, with Kane increasingly vocal, whether emotionally congratulating Djed Spence on his senior debut in that September win in Belgrade or giving a rousing speech to his team-mates when they sealed qualification last month against Latvia.

To consider how England would look in the World Cup without any or all of Pickford, Stones, Rice and Kane is to simply imagine a different, much-diminished side.

That is not even a criticism of Tuchel or his planning. Every team are dependent on their best players. The nature of world-class talents is that they are not easy to replicate or replace. Many sides competing in the tournament next summer would love to be as dependent on their spine as England are on theirs.

And yet it is impossible not to worry just a bit about them and how they hold up, going into a relentless run of club football between now and March.

For all the endless talk about Bellingham, Foden and the rest, these are the players who got England to the 2026 World Cup with ease. And these are the players who will carry the campaign on their backs.