I can’t image Jude Bellingham NOT starting at 2026 World Cup.. but I fear defence got let England down

I CAN’T imagine Jude Bellingham not starting England’s first game in the World Cup, as long as he’s fit.

There seem to be some question marks after he was left out of the squad last month, then didn’t start against Serbia and the things Thomas Tuchel has said.

But you only have to look at the Euros — Jude would be your first man on the team sheet.

Maybe Thomas just decided he needed to be looked after a bit, so left him out.

I’m sure that’s what he’ll have told him, too — that he took him off because of the booking and wanted to make sure he could start the first game of the World Cup.

When it comes to it, he’ll start him.

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The big question is whether England are good enough to win it?

We’re going there as one of the favourites, and with all that talent going forward — Harry Kane, Bellingham, Phil Foden, Bukayo Saka — we’ve some fantastic players.

But I’m just not sure defensively whether we’ve got quite good enough players to win a World Cup.

I’m a big John Stones fan but does he stay fit long enough to play regularly?

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Nico O’Reilly did very well in the two games he played at left-back but he’s still a kid, really.

But if we’re talking about winning a World Cup, are we good enough as a back four?

There’s some amazing talents here but you look at the last Euros.

With all that talent, we never ever played well, really.

We scrambled our way to the final.

There was that last-second overhead kick by Bellingham against Slovakia but every game was like that.

The jury’s out for me until the World Cup comes.

That’s when we’ll see exactly how good we are.