Rico Lewis has not played for England since November 2024, and Tuchel has called him up for Czechia at Wembley
Nico O’Reilly is out injured, so the Manchester City full-back moves up from the under-21s for Tuesday’s Nations League game.
Oct 5, 2026
Rico Lewis last played for England against Greece on 14 November 2024. Nearly two years later he is back in a senior squad, called up by Thomas Tuchel on Sunday to replace his Manchester City team-mate Nico O’Reilly before Tuesday’s Nations League game against Czechia at Wembley.
Kick-off is 7:45pm in London, which is 12:15am IST on Wednesday, 7 October.
A replacement England said they would not make
O’Reilly picked up the injury after England’s 3-2 home defeat to Spain on 26 September and went back to Manchester on Thursday. Tuchel called it minor, and England said at the time that nobody would be brought in. That changed on Sunday.
Lewis was already on international duty, just one level down. He started for Lee Carsley’s under-21s in Stoke on Friday, when a 0-0 draw with Slovakia sent them to the 2027 European Under-21 Championship, and he has moved straight across to the senior camp. He has five senior caps, the first against North Macedonia in November 2023.
I’m not sure he plays. He has hardly featured for City so far this season. But a 21-year-old who can play full-back or in midfield is a useful body to have in the building for the last game of a four-match international window, and the call-up tells him he has not been forgotten.
England have scored nine since losing to Spain
The Spain defeat stung, and the response has been loud. England won 2-0 in Czechia on 29 September, a game that turned when Pavel Sulc was sent off after 25 minutes, and then beat Croatia 7-0 in Rijeka on Saturday. Harry Kane and Bukayo Saka scored twice each that night, and Jude Bellingham had a goal and three assists.
That leaves England second in League A Group 3 on six points, three behind Spain, who play Croatia in Split on Tuesday. Croatia have three points and Czechia none. The top two in each group go through to the quarter-finals.
Czechia arrive without Krejci
Santi Denia has lost all three games since taking over Czechia after the World Cup: 2-1 at home to Croatia, 2-0 at home to England, and 3-1 against Spain in Oviedo on Saturday. They have scored twice in that run.
The Oviedo defeat also cost them a defender. Ladislav Krejci was booked for dissent and then shown a second yellow for pulling back Roberto Fernandez, so he is suspended for Wembley. Sulc is available again after serving his ban in Spain.
On paper this is the easiest of England’s six group games. Czechia played much of the first meeting with ten men, so nobody yet knows how they cope with England at eleven against eleven. A team that has just taken seven off Croatia should still be expected to find out quickly.