England will face Argentina in the World Cup semi-finals, with manager Thomas Tuchel set to call up one of his first-team stars for the game.
Declan Rice looks set to be ready for the match against Argentina (Image: Getty Images)
Declan Rice is expected to start against Argentina after overcoming an illness scare. Arsenal midfielder Rice was in bed for three days last week with suspected food poisoning.
The England star played just 45 minutes against Norway and remains a major fitness concern for Thomas Tuchel.
However, Rice is understood to be on the mend, feeling better and wanting to train fully to prove his fitness ahead of Wednesday’s semi-final in Atlanta.
England manager Tuchel will give Rice extra time and opportunity to prepare for the match. Rice is an important player for England, but against Norway he was forced to be substituted at half-time due to illness.
Doctors in England initially feared the infection would spread to other groups, but the infection remained self-contained. Rice is an important player under Tuchel, who has appointed him his vice-captain and relies on him as a key and experienced player.
Rice is already overcoming a lower back problem that affected his hamstring and caused problems in this tournament. But Rice is a fighter for England and is clearly keen to play in what will be one of the biggest games of his career.
Rice has a great partnership with Elliott Anderson and the Arsenal player was clearly below full fitness against Norway, which had a big impact on his performance.
Declan Rice played just 45 minutes against Norway (Image: Getty Images)
However, Rice expects to be back to his best on Wednesday, which will be a big boost for Tuchel, who said he was below his best after the match against Norway.
Tuchel said on Saturday: “Declan was suffering because he had spent most of the last three days in bed. We knew he wasn’t going to make it through 90 minutes and it could have been 120 minutes, so we didn’t want to waste another substitution, so we took the decision to send Declan off earlier than necessary to save another substitution in the second half of the game.”
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