England reveal new vice-captain for World Cup as Thomas Tuchel explains decision | Football | Sport

Declan Rice has been appointed England‘s vice-captain for the World Cup, with the Arsenal midfielder also earmarked as a future skipper. England manager Thomas Tuchel has declared Rice part of a “special group” of untouchables alongside Harry Kane, with both players considered certainties to start.

Rice will shoulder additional responsibility as a key member of England’s leadership group, which is headed by skipper Kane. Yet Tuchel clearly views Rice as the heir apparent – even if he openly admitted he was not entirely certain whether he had officially informed the midfielder of his role.

When pressed on who would serve as his vice-captain, Tuchel said: “I think I would say Declan is my vice-captain.” Asked whether Rice was aware of this, Tuchel smiled: “That is a good question. I was just thinking about it. Whether it is an official thing or not.

“But I think we had this talk when Harry was not in camp with us. Was it against Wales? We started with Ollie Watkins and I think Declan was captain. That was where I told him.”

The match in question was a friendly against Wales last year, in which Rice did indeed lead the side – news that will come as a significant boost to the midfielder. With Kane turning 33 next month, Tuchel is already planning for the future, and Rice sits firmly at the top of his list of potential captains.

The Arsenal quartet have since linked up with the England squad at their training base in West Palm Beach, following the friendly victory over New Zealand in Tampa.

Rice, Bukayo Saka, Eberechi Eze and Noni Madueke have now linked up with the squad, yet Tuchel admits he remains unsure how much game time they will receive against Costa Rica in Wednesday’s forthcoming friendly.

Tuchel said: “It will be different against Costa Rica. We will get bigger chunks of minutes because it is part of the build-up and then after that we will have six days or something for Croatia. We need some players to play 60 or 70 minutes.

“I am not sure about the Arsenal players. Let’s see how they come back. Three training days and let’s see. We have one more match behind closed doors the next day to manage all the minutes.

“Let’s say if someone plays 70 minutes against Costa Rica and someone else only plays 20, that is also not enough so there will be players who only had 20 or 30 minutes and will play the next day again.”