The Cole Palmer England squad snub is the headline call from Thomas Tuchel’s final Three Lions selection of 2026. Chelsea‘s 24-year-old playmaker has been left out of England’s squad for November’s UEFA Nations League games against Croatia and Spain, despite being fully fit and available for selection.
Palmer was the name on everyone’s lips when Tuchel named his 25-man group on Friday. The Chelsea star withdrew from the September and October camps through injury, and Tuchel had already criticised him publicly for it. Now the manager has followed through, leaving Palmer at home while England chase the point they need from their final two group games to reach the quarter-finals.
It is a brutal call on form alone. Palmer has not missed a Chelsea game since the last international break, yet Tuchel has made it clear that availability in camp matters as much as performances at club level.
Cole Palmer England squad snub: why Tuchel left him out
Tuchel explained the decision at his Wembley press conference, saying: “It counts when you are in camp and I just said it last time, he [Palmer] misses too many opportunities to impress.”
The manager’s frustration is rooted in the last two windows. Palmer pulled out of the September and October squads with injury, yet played for Chelsea without missing a game in between, and he was sent off against Tottenham in the build-up to this announcement. That pattern, Tuchel believes, has cost the 24-year-old too many chances to stake his claim in an England shirt. He will end 2026 with only two England appearances to his name, both of them back in March.
Jobe Bellingham and Josh King earn first call-ups
While Palmer’s door has closed for now, two young midfielders have walked through it for the first time. Jobe Bellingham, 21, has earned his maiden senior call-up after impressing for Borussia Dortmund, where he has set up three goals in 14 games this season. He will link up with older brother Jude Bellingham in the squad. Fulham’s Josh King, 19, has been rewarded too, after two goals and one assist in his first nine Premier League games of the season.
Both youngsters were preferred to Manchester City’s Phil Foden, who also misses out, and there is no place either for Kobbie Mainoo or Jordan Henderson in midfield. Sports Mole reported that Tuchel handed senior call-ups to Josh King and Jobe Bellingham instead.
Who else made the squad — and the fixtures ahead
Elsewhere, Harry Kane will break Peter Shilton’s all-time England caps record of 125 if he plays for even one second during the break, while Arsenal defender Ben White returns to the squad for the first time since March, replacing the injured Trevoh Chalobah. Djed Spence is recalled, Ezri Konsa is included despite an injury scare in the Champions League win over Slavia Prague, and Dean Henderson is left out even though he has recovered from his own fitness problem.
Five Arsenal players make the cut in total — White, Konsa, Myles Lewis-Skelly, Declan Rice and Eberechi Eze — while Marcus Rashford misses out with a hip injury and Noni Madueke is also overlooked. Notably, there is not a single Manchester United player in the squad, the second selection in a row in which the club has gone unrepresented.
England host Croatia at Wembley on Thursday, 12 November, before travelling to Spain on Sunday, 15 November. One point from those two games will be enough to book a quarter-final place. For Palmer, the wait goes on — and his next chance to change Tuchel’s mind will have to come in a Chelsea shirt.
For more on the run-in, check today’s predictions.
Goalkeepers: Jordan Pickford, Jason Steele, James Trafford. Defenders: Trent Alexander-Arnold, Jarrad Branthwaite, Marc Guehi, Lewis Hall, Ezri Konsa, Jarell Quansah, Djed Spence, Ben White. Midfielders: Elliot Anderson, Jobe Bellingham, Jude Bellingham, James Garner, Josh King, Myles Lewis-Skelly, Declan Rice. Forwards: Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Eberechi Eze, Morgan Gibbs-White, Anthony Gordon, Harry Kane, Rio Ngumoha, Morgan Rogers.
Photos: Wikimedia Commons (CC0) — collage by SportsBuddy.
