{"id":578698,"date":"2026-07-10T13:49:21","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T13:49:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/578698\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T13:49:21","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T13:49:21","slug":"world-cup-england-facing-huge-double-concern-ahead-of-norway-clash-as-key-starters-doubtful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/578698\/","title":{"rendered":"World Cup: England facing huge double concern ahead of Norway clash as key starters doubtful"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>England have concerns over Marc Guehi and Declan Rice ahead of Saturday\u2019s World Cup quarter-final clash with Norway in Florida.<\/p>\n<p>Centre-back Guehi has a slight hamstring that he suffered during the stunning 3-2 last-16 win over Mexico at the Azteca Stadium last weekend.<\/p>\n<p>There is better news of Reece James, however, after he returned to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.football365.com\/england\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>England<\/strong><\/a> training as expected on Thursday and is in contention for the game, but Rice did not train again because of a sickness bug.<\/p>\n<p>Initially it was hoped <a href=\"https:\/\/www.football365.com\/tag\/marc-guehi\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Guehi<\/strong><\/a> was carrying muscular fatigue and would be fit to face Norway. However, it\u2019s now reported that the Manchester City star has a hamstring strain.<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.football365.com\/news\/norway-chaos-haaland-concern-world-cup-england-mediawatch\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Norway in \u2018chaos\u2019 as Haaland concern emerges and science leading England to glory<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>As reported by the <a rel=\"noopener nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/football\/articles\/c3eyqdwq392o\" target=\"_blank\">BBC\u2019s Sami Mokbel<\/a>, Guehi is desperate to prove his fitness and remains \u2018optimistic\u2019 he can be involved in the match. However, if he cannot train with the squad on Friday, he must be considered a major doubt.<\/p>\n<p>While the issue is not viewed as serious, coping with his City teammate Erling Haaland when not fully fit would be considered a major gamble for Thre Lions boss Thomas Tuchel in a game of this magnitude.<\/p>\n<p>If Guehi is not available, Tuchel is likely to turn to the experienced John Stones, who came off the bench in the Mexico win, and also knows Haaland well.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Rice expected to recover from sickness bug<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.football365.com\/tag\/declan-rice\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Rice<\/strong><\/a> is understood to have missed a second successive day of training because of a sickness bug, having also been troubled by a\u00a0neural issue affecting his hamstring and lower back during the tournament.<\/p>\n<p>England have taken steps to ensure the bug does not spread and there is confidence that the Arsenal man will be ready to go.<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, Sky Sports reporter Rob Dorsett provided further news on the concerns over Rice and Guehi ahead of the contest, and claims that Dan Burn is the likely replacement for the latter, if he does not make it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ NEXT: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.football365.com\/news\/2026-world-cup-power-rankings\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">World Cup 2026 Power Rankings: Mbappe-powered France have air of inevitability<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>He tweeted: \u201cMarc Guehi rated as 50-50 for #england World Cup quarter-final v Norway. Hamstring problem not serious, but time the issue, and Dan Burn pushing to come in if Guehi doesn\u2019t make it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRice sickness shouldn\u2019t stop him starting, and England have isolated the bug.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cReece James desperate to play, but would be a big risk of him breaking down after so little training and with his hamstring problem far from fixed.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"England have concerns over Marc Guehi and Declan Rice ahead of Saturday\u2019s World Cup quarter-final clash with Norway&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":578699,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[76],"tags":[2725,246234,18,4507,793,19,17,2353,6013,5,132,35350],"class_list":["post-578698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-arsenal","tag-delcan-rice","tag-eire","tag-england","tag-front-page","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-manchester-city","tag-marc-guehi","tag-news","tag-sports","tag-world-cup"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116896003919382359","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=578698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578698\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/578699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=578698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=578698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=578698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}