Declan Rice spent most of the three days before England’s World Cup quarter-final against Norway in bed with a sickness bug, manager Thomas Tuchel has revealed. The Arsenal midfielder was a doubt for the match after also struggling with a neural issue affecting his hamstring and lower back, which was exacerbated by illness. Despite being bedridden, Rice started the 2-1 victory in the stifling heat of Miami Stadium but was replaced at half-time by Arsenal team-mate Eberechi Eze.
“We had to take Elliot [Anderson] or Declan out [and] knowing that Declan struggled after the last three days where he was most of the time in bed, I knew he cannot survive 90 minutes,” Tuchel said. “There was a possibility that it goes 120 [minutes], so I didn’t want to waste another change, so the decision was to take Declan out earlier than he needed to go out, just to save us another change later down the match.”
“Declan Rice was bedridden with sickness before England's World Cup win over Norway; Bellingham scored twice.”
England fell behind when Andreas Schjelderup’s cross-cum-shot looped past Jordan Pickford. But Jude Bellingham equalised just before half-time and then struck again in extra time, capitalising on a spilled shot from substitute Morgan Rogers to secure a 2-1 win. The victory set up a semi-final against Argentina, who beat Switzerland, kicking off at 20:00 BST on Wednesday, 15 July, live on the BBC.
Tuchel admitted he made the decision to replace Rice at the break because of the illness, but also because he wanted to go more offensive when trailing 1-0. “Declan, we made a decision in half-time to become more offensive, to have a bit of an offensive shift,” he said. “I made the decision when we were 1-0 down and didn’t want to go back on the decision because of the equaliser.”
Rice’s absence in the second half was part of a double change that saw Bukayo Saka and Eze introduced. The 2026 World Cup marks the first time England have reached the semi-finals in eight years, and they will face Lionel Messi’s Argentina for the first time ever at a World Cup. Argentina fans have already dubbed the match “easy peasy”, but England will hope their talisman Bellingham, who now has four goals in the tournament, can produce another moments of brilliance.