Thomas Tuchel has shed light on how Morgan Gibbs-White reacted to narrowly missing out on a place in his first England squad before later being brought in due to injuries
England boss Thomas Tuchel praised Morgan Gibbs-White for how the Nottingham Forest star handled being left out of the manager’s first international squad. Gibbs-White was initially overlooked despite a fine season at club level, but earned his chance after Cole Palmer was forced to withdraw through injury.
The playmaker, who was part of the Under-17 World Cup winning squad under Steve Cooper in 2017 and won the 2023 Under-21 Euros under Lee Carsley, made his senior debut under interim boss Carsley in 2024. He played in UEFA Nations League matches against Ireland and Greece, setting up a Curtis Jones goal against the latter.
Gibbs-White was left out of the matchday squad on Friday as Tuchel’s side beat Albania at Wembley. The Three Lions face Latvia in their second World Cup qualifier on Monday, and Tuchel suggested the 25-year-old will play a part.
“It’s very likely that he will be in the squad,” Tuchel told reporters when asked about Gibbs-White. “Morgan is an amazing character, I have to say. I’m happy he is with us.
“He deserves a lot of praise because first of all how he took the first disappointment when he got my call that he [was] not in the squad. He handled it very well, because when he got the second call he was straight away excited and didn’t take it personally.
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“I can see why he is a winner, we can clearly see that. I think he won titles with the youth teams already, so you can see that he’s a fantastic team player and can handle disappointment very very well. When we trained after the match in Wembley he was one of the outstanding players in training, although he was not in the squad before.
“So that’s amazing. It’s also how we expect it to be because it should be an honour, it should be a privilege to play for England, and the egos have to be put aside – that’s what everyone is doing and Morgan does it in an impressive way.”
“When asked if there would be changes to his starting line-up, Tuchel said: “Yes and no. We have reasons to let all of them play again and say ‘let’s do better’, but we also have reports from the physical department of some concerns. So let’s see. It’s only the second day after the match and we need to be cautious.
“Maybe it will be a mix between the both. We have two or three players who felt their legs after the match but let’s see. We have quite some time. No one will be dropped from a performance point of view but if we have fresh legs available we are not afraid to do it.”
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