Liverpool‘s teenage forward Rio Ngumoha will leave the England camp this week after making a major impression on Thomas Tuchel and his international team-mates.
The 17-year-old, who is not in England’s 26-man squad, was named man-of-the-match for his debut performance as a second-half substitute in Saturday’s 1-0 World Cup warm-up win over New Zealand.
England play their final pre-tournament friendly on Wednesday against Costa Rica and it will be interesting to see if Tuchel again selects Ngumoha.
The England manager will have a full squad to choose from following the arrivals of Arsenal quartet Declan Rice, Bukayo Saka, Eberechi Eze and Noni Madueke.
But while the starting line-up against Costa Rica is expected to be closer to the side that will play the opening World Cup match against Croatia on Wednesday, 17 June, it is unlikely the Arsenal players will start.
So, could Ngumoha be given another chance before he and England go their separate ways?
The main squad will travel to their World Cup base in Kansas City, Missouri on Saturday, after they have played a behind-closed-doors training game against local team Miami United.
Ngumoha will go on holiday before returning to the US next month for Liverpool’s pre-season tour.
The Liverpool attacker was one of five supplementary England players taken to the pre-tournament camp in Florida, with the Arsenal players among those arriving later having been in the Champions League final.
Ngumoha was only meant to participate in training, however, Tuchel has been so impressed he felt compelled to play him during the first warm-up match – a surprise decision that was vindicated.
That performance had led to assertions that Ngumoha should have been in Tuchel’s thinking before now, either included in the final 26, or first in-line for a call-up should a player be injured before the tournament starts.
However, because Ngumoha was not included in Tuchel’s initial 55-man squad for the tournament he cannot be drafted in as an injury replacement.
Speaking in March, Tuchel refused to rule out selecting the teenager for the tournament – so to then not pick him in the expanded 55-man pool does seem confusing.
