Thomas Tuchel has revealed Lewis Hall missed some England training sessions with an injury scare, explaining the defender’s absence against Spain.
Hall was an unused substitute as the Three Lions were beaten by the reigning world and European champions in their 2026/27 Nations League opener on Saturday evening.
O'Reilly starts over Hall
Instead, Nico O’Reilly played the full 90 minutes at Wembley Stadium and despite claiming the assist for Harry Kane’s goal to put England 2-1 up, the Manchester City youngster was at fault for Alex Baena’s equaliser and struggled to contain Lamine Yamal.
By contrast, Hall was hailed for stifling the Spain winger when Newcastle faced Barcelona in the Champions League last season.
Tuchel explains decision
To the surprise of some, Hall - who recently signed a new contract at St James’ Park - was not summoned from the bench against Spain, though Tuchel has provided the reason why.
"He missed some training sessions with a bit of an injury scare, Lewis Hall," the England boss told reporters. "That is why I was a bit hesitant to put him out there today."
"He is an option, he trained well at the end of the week but he was out of training at the start, we didn't want to take any risk because there was high speed running to do and defending against Lamine Yamal.
"I did not want to risk it. He is always in our discussions in the left-back position, he plays left-back at his club, Nico plays in centre midfield."
"Lewis' situation is he will fight for his place and get his first matches, there are still a few matches to go."
What's next for England
England are back in Nations League action on Tuesday evening as they face Czechia in Prague before rounding off the extended autumn international break against Croatia and the return meeting with Czechia.
