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England recently became the first European country to book their spot in the World Cup by securing an impressive 5-0 victory over Latvia in their qualifying match on October 14 at Daugava Stadium in Riga.
The Three Lions' latest squad for the qualifiers did not include some of their talented players due to their respective injuries, fitness issues, and current forms.
One such name is Real Madrid star Jude Bellingham, who underwent surgery in July after dealing with a left shoulder dislocation for the major part of the 2023-24 and 2024-25 campaigns. The Englishman made a swift recovery and has already featured in five matches for Los Blancos.
However, Bellingham's omission from Thomas Tuchel's squad for the October qualifiers has raised questions and cast doubts over the 22-year-old star making a return to the national team for the World Cup.
Now, Real Madrid's first-choice goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois has claimed that he is certain Bellingham will be back in the Three Lions squad for the competition next year, which will be hosted in North America.
"Yes, of course. I don't think we can imagine England without Jude. He should be in the England squad, definitely. I don't think it's a problem. Jude is coming back from an injury, a surgery and he has to get his fitness in," as per GOAL.
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"He has to play. He hasn't had so many minutes so for England and Real Madrid it is better that he is training and getting that extra physical work. Now we have a couple of tough games and hopefully he will help because he is an amazing player. He is one of our best players."
Courtois further mentioned that he believes Jude will return to action for the November qualifiers as well and added,
"I don't know if Tuchel has called him or not. But I'm sure that even in November he will be back in the England squad. You want a player like Jude in the squad."
"He has had a long injury of four months so you cannot force them to go too fast. If you do then you can get muscle injuries and have a few weeks out and then if it happens again you can have another few weeks out. You need to have optimum fitness and then it will be OK."
What did England boss Thomas Tuchel say about Real Madrid's Jude Bellingham?
When asked about his plans for Bellingham in England's upcoming matches, Tuchel referred to the midfielder as 'an important player,' and told reporters,
"I guess so. Why not? Of course, he's an important player, he's a big player. I will speak to a lot of players, also to the guys that will get a text from me, who were not in camp, especially them," as per ESPN.
"Because these guys who are now here, they have the reward and they feel the reward. And it's now necessary also that I stay in touch with the other guys."
"No one has done anything wrong. It's not a punishment or whatever and I feel when I text them and I speak to them, that everyone is eager to come back and this is how it has to be. So there are a lot of guys out there who would deserve to be with us."
It remains to be seen if Bellingham receives the call from Tuchel for England's qualifying games against Serbia and Albania in November, followed by the World Cup, which commences in June next year.
In the meantime, Bellingham and Real Madrid will be making the trip to face Getafe in their ninth La Liga match of the season on October 19 at Coliseum Stadium.
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