England manager Thomas Tuchel has heaped praise on Nottingham Forest captain Morgan Gibbs-White for his handling of the disappointment which meant he missed out on a place in Friday night's squad for the visit of Albania - but the German has confirmed that involvement status is likely to change on Monday night.
The Three Lions welcome Latvia for their second World Cup qualifier of this international break, having eased past Albania 2-0 on Friday thanks to Myles Lewis-Skelly and Harry Kane, but Tuchel could only name 23 players in his squad from the 26 he'd selected - Gibbs-White was one of those who missed out with Aaron Ramsdale and Jarell Quansah.
Tuchel has been taken aback and impressed by how Gibbs-White - who was called up after Chelsea star Cole Palmer withdrew because of injury - took the setback of not being included and the maturity that the Forest skipper displayed. In the days since, he has been among the most eye-catching in training.
The new England boss, who has been doubly impressed by 'amazing' Gibbs-White after how he reacted to missing out on the squad in the first place prior to Palmer's withdrawal, has indicated that Gibbs-White is more likely than not to be involved in his 23-man group tonight.
"It's very likely that he will be in the squad," Tuchel said of Gibbs-White at his pre-match press conference ahead of the Latvia clash at Wembley this evening. "Morgan is an amazing character, I have to say. I'm happy he is with us.
"He deserves a lot of praise because first of all how he took the first disappointment when he got my call that he [was] not in the squad. He handled it very well, because when he got the second call he was straight away excited and didn't take it personally.
"I can see why he is a winner, we can clearly see that. I think he won titles with the youth teams already, so you can see that he's a fantastic team player and can handle disappointment very very well. When we trained after the match in Wembley he was one of the outstanding players in training, although he was not in the squad before.
"So that's amazing. It's also how we expect it to be because it should be an honour, it should be a privilege to play for England, and the egos have to be put aside - that's what everyone is doing and Morgan does it in an impressive way."
Newcastle United winger Anthony Gordon will miss out because of a hip injury sustained on Friday night, but Tuchel has hinted that he is ready to rotate his squad, make changes and take a closer look at more players in a competitive environment as he continues to learn about precisely what is at his disposal having only taken over at the beginning of the year.
"We have reasons to let all of them play again and say 'let's do better', but we also have reports from the physical department of some concerns, so let's see," he added. "It's only the second day after the match and we need to be cautious. Maybe it will be a mix between both. We have two or three players who felt their legs after the match but let's see. We have quite some time."
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