England head coach Thomas Tuchel will name an experimental line-up for their friendly against Uruguay on Friday.
Tuchel has named an enlarged 35-man squad for Wembley friendlies against Uruguay on Friday and Japan next Tuesday, but the group is effectively split down the middle, with 11 players who have had long domestic schedules to first be given a mid-season break and play no part against Uruguay.
Those players are Dean Henderson, Dan Burn, Marc Guehi, Ezri Konsa, Nico O’Reilly, Eliott Anderson, Declan Rice, Morgan Rogers, Anthony Gordon, Harry Kane and Bukayo Saka.
That will give chances to plenty of lesser-used players to press their cases against the Uruguayans, with Tino Livramento, Adam Wharton and strikers Dominic Solanke and Dominic Calvert-Lewin all in contention to play.
Those who joined up with the group on Tuesday morning at St George’s Park were in a training session on Tuesday evening and the squad trained at Wembley on Thursday.
John Stones, however, is a doubt due to a calf issue, which could present the chance for Fikayo Tomori to start.
There is also a chance of a first appearance in a year and a half for Manchester United centre-back Harry Maguire, who has been rewarded for good club form with a first call-up since September 2024.
Tuchel surprisingly called up Brighton’s second-choice goalkeeper Jason Steele, but the 35-year-old is in the squad to be a training keeper rather than play, so he will not feature against Uruguay.
Tuchel explained last Friday that Jude Bellingham, only just back from injury, would benefit from the team training but was not in contention to face Uruguay, with “best case” being that the Real Madrid star plays some minutes against Japan.
England predicted XI (4-2-3-1): Pickford; Livramento, Tomori, Maguire, Hall; Wharton, J Henderson; Madueke, Palmer, Rashford; Solanke
Injured: None
Doubt: Stones
Rested, so unavailable: D Henderson, Burn, Guehi, Konsa, O’Reilly, Anderson, Rice, Rogers, Gordon, Kane, Saka, Bellingham
Time and date: 7.45pm GMT on Friday, March 27, 2026
Venue: Wembley Stadium
How to watch: ITV1 and ITVX
