England v Ghana: Group L - FIFA World Cup 2026
Declan Rice has been managing an injury at the World Cup. (Image: Getty)
England medical staff will monitor the fitness of Declan Rice and Djed Spence after both suffered injury scares against Ghana. Rice left the Gillette Stadium in Massachusetts with significant strapping on his left calf after he was on the receiving end of a strong challenge near the corner flag during the second half.
He was able to finish the match despite hitting the deck several times in the closing stages of the stalemate. Meanwhile, Spence, who snubbed a pre-match handshake with Thomas Partey, appeared to pick up an ankle knock while keeping out Marvin Senaya at the back post.
Anthony Gordon was caught under the ball but Spence nullified the danger, jolting his ankle in the turf.
The versatile full-back was spotted limping heavily after the full-time whistle having been subbed on 66 minutes.
Both players will be assessed at England's Kansas City training base ahead of Saturday's final Group L showdown with Panama.
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Meanwhile, Thomas Tuchel has hit back at Carlos Queiroz's claim that Jude Bellingham "could have been sent off" for his tackle on Jerome Opoku.
The challenge sparked a mass confrontation between Bellingham and the Ghana bench which led to Bellingham being calmed down by his team-mates at the half-time interval.
Queiroz has since had his say on the incident, explaining: "My intention was to tell him to cool down with that tackle. It could be a second yellow card, a red card, because he went with his foot against my player.
"But my first goal was to cool down because I was worried that that player was not in 100% health. He had a bad reaction with some bad names so that's why the story started."
England v Ghana -World Cup
Djed Spence picked up a knock against Ghana. (Image: Getty)
During his press conference, he refused to go into details about the precise words Bellingham said during their verbal exchange, stating: "He swore and it created more tension, it was nothing special."
Tuchel has since hit back, stating: "I could not see any red card for us today, it was difficult to get a rhythm out of this. Nobody got under our skin.
"Jude stood up for himself and for us as a team. We were calm at half-time, to going. You cannot fall asleep for one second.
"It was an incident you saw, the emotion of the moment was normal in football. He swears and it created more tension, it was nothing special."
Bellingham has since clarified it was a "silly tackle" and that he has nothing but respect for ex-Manchester United assistant Queiroz.
Tuchel also appeared to take a swipe at Ghana, claiming they celebrated the draw like a victory as he discussed four points being enough to guarantee knockout qualification in the newly-expanded tournament format.
He said: "They got a last-minute winner and four points is the target, they celebrated like a win, we were disappointed and you see clearly the difference in the approach.
"No complaints, it's just what it is, they have a lot of quality and a lot of speed.
"We didn't want to be naive from the start and have an open match against them, I'm not sure if a lot of players can stop them then."
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