Harry Maguire will always be in contention for England – Thomas Tuchel

Thomas Tuchel says Harry Maguire will “always be in contention” for England despite overlooking the Manchester United defender for his first camp in charge.

The 32-year-old was a key part of Sir Gareth Southgate’s set-up despite enduring some difficult spells at club level, playing in three major tournaments before missing last summer’s Euros through injury.

Maguire only won two caps in 2024 and was not selected for Tuchel’s first matches in charge of England as the defender dealt with an issue sustained at the start of March.

“I spoke to everyone who was not nominated and was on the (long) list,” the head coach said when asked about the 64-cap defender.

“I spoke to all of them to give them my direct feedback, why this is. It was a close decision.

“We chose Marc Guehi and Ezri Konsa. At the moment I think they are a little bit in a better rhythm and deserve to be with us, so two right-footers in central defence and the rest was left-footers in central defence.”

Asked if he viewed Maguire as being fit, Tuchel said: “Yeah, but the second reason was that he was not fit when we did the nomination.

“It was presumed that he can play but I didn’t want to take the risk to nominate a player in which we have to take care in the first training, second training and constantly need to assess if he can do full training session, half training session.

“We did the same with Reece James and only for the feedback that he can do every session full was the reason that we brought him into camp.

“Harry knows that. It’s not so easy at the moment for him in the club. He plays in a back three on top of it but, listen, he’s a top professional, he’s very important, he was very important for England.

“He took it unbelievably well. He wrote me messages to wish us good luck, so you see what a person he is, a top guy. He will always be in contention.”

Maguire will be among those hoping to be involved in June, when a World Cup qualifier on the road against Andorra is followed by a friendly with Senegal at the City Ground.

Those games come between the Champions League final and Club World Cup in an “awkward” June international window that Tuchel thinks FIFA should look at as more and more is asked of players.

“I am not so concerned about the amount of games the players play in total,” he said. “I am more concerned that they never have a real break of three to four weeks.

“Maybe they have three weeks holiday but maybe after five days they play another competition. That’s the problem.

“They should have a minimum three or three-and-a-half weeks of preparation, then it would be better for everyone.

“In general, being a club coach or international coach, the FIFA June window is, I think, debatable if this makes sense.”

Tuchel added: “I think it would be FIFA to align the calendar and maybe find a gap where we could put this window somewhere else, to open the window for the better of the players.”