Thomas Tuchel admitted he would never substitute Declan Rice in normal circumstances after taking the midfielder off in England's 4-2 defeat of Croatia due to an injury scare. A Harry Kane brace and brilliant second-half goals from Jude Bellingham and Marcus Rashford ensured the Three Lions kickstarted their World Cup campaign in style in the United States. But there were fears in Texas over the fitness of Rice after he was taken off.
Kane's opener came from the penalty spot at the second attempt. His first attempt was saved but the spot-kick was retaken due to encroachment and goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic coming off his line, and the captain was clinical at the second time of asking. Martin Baturina then equalised before Kane headed England back in front from a Rice corner. Petar Musa stunned England when he made it 2-2 in first-half stoppage time tet Tuchel's side took the game away from Croatia after the break. Bellingham and Rashford both scored as England peppered Livakovic's goal. Yet Arsenal's Rice was surprisingly brought off in the 72nd minute and replaced by Morgan Rogers.
ITV suggested that the influential 27-year-old Premier League winner limped off the pitch while being subbed. And Tuchel said to ITV post-match: "Let's see. I hope they are OK. Normally I would never take Declan out but I didn't want to take any risk. Yeah, the reaction was excellent, the effort was enormous because we were not very clean with the first and second touch after we won balls.
"We were not clean enough and lost a lot of these moments and then you work a lot. A ball loss after a ball win is maybe the most tiring thing you can have and we had a lot of them so we are exhausted. But don't get me wrong, I love exhausted players in a dressing room and I think we needed this.
"It's a strong opponent, it's pressure, first game of the tournament and we got our win. Today it's only positives and tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, we fix all the other stuff."
Tuchel added on the victory: "Good second half, good reaction. I think first half was a bit complicated for us, a bit nervy. The decisions we took, we chose to go safe and play too many balls backwards. We didn't have the confidence to go through the gaps.
"We were not brave enough or committed enough. I love the reaction of the players in the second half, it was excellent. We deserved to win. There were a lot of emotions involved and it took us a while to get going but we did get going and that's positive.
"I just said, 'Even if we lose, it will not change my perception of the last 17 days. But let's do it our way.' We were too focused on the result and protecting what we didn't have in the moment. The second goal is an example, I think we were a back seven and we didn't defend the goal."