Bukayo Saka's Struggles and England's World Cup Hopes
Bukayo Saka looks broken. Not in spirit, but in body – and for England, that might be enough to break a World Cup dream.
Gary Neville has watched him closely in North America and doesn’t like what he sees. The winger, usually England’s live wire, is carrying a persistent Achilles problem that the FA have been tracking all tournament. Thomas Tuchel has used him in all three group games, but only in carefully measured bursts from the bench. The minutes tell their own story. So does the body language.
“Bukayo Saka doesn't look right at all,” Neville said on Stick to Football, brought to you by Sky Bet. “He's usually the boy that's bubbling and smiling, he's got that competitive edge to him, but he's not right and that's a concern to us, I think.”
The concern runs deeper than just one player. It runs through England’s entire approach out wide.
A star running on empty
Saka’s season has been brutal. A long, draining campaign with Arsenal, a managed workload down the Premier League stretch, and now a World Cup where he’s still short of full sharpness. He hasn’t regularly finished 90 minutes for months. The numbers are catching up with him.
He knew the risks. He admitted before the tournament that he was “happy to gamble” with his fitness to be here. Ian Wright now wonders if that gamble was a step too far.
Wright, who knows exactly what it is to shoulder a nation’s attacking hopes, doesn’t like what he’s seeing either. To him, this isn’t the fearless, relentless Saka who has carried Arsenal and England. This is a player running on fumes.
“We're going into a World Cup, and still not starting the first few games, only starting when we're three games in, and still isn't looking like the Saka that we know – this guy needs a break,” Wright said.
That last line hangs in the air. Needs a break. England, though, need him.
Wingers wasting their moment
The problem for Tuchel is that Saka’s struggle isn’t an isolated issue. England’s flanks, usually a source of chaos and incision, have gone quiet.
Anthony Gordon has had his chance. So has Noni Madueke. Neither has seized it with the authority this stage demands. The wide areas feel flat, predictable, short on conviction. When the ball goes wide, opponents don’t panic. They reset.
The consequence is obvious. England’s threat has narrowed. Too often they are waiting for Jude Bellingham to conjure something from nowhere or for Harry Kane to rescue a move with a moment of brilliance. That’s a dangerous way to live at a World Cup.
Roy Keane can see the storm coming.
“The wingers need to grab their opportunity. These players haven't quite grabbed their opportunity yet,” he warned. “In the group games, you can maybe slip up in one of them, but now at least one of them has to start turning up.”
The group stage offers leeway. The knockouts do not. One quiet night from your forwards, one injury, one lapse, and you’re gone.
A brutal path ahead
England now head to Atlanta for a last-32 tie with DR Congo. On paper, it’s a fixture they should navigate. But nobody inside that camp will be thinking only about the next 90 minutes. The bracket looms large.
Get through this, and the route hardens quickly. Mexico or Ecuador could be waiting next. Then, potentially, Brazil in the quarter-finals. Survive that, and the prize might be a semi-final against reigning champions Argentina.
It’s a road that demands peak physical and mental condition from the squad. Instead, England are nursing their most dangerous winger through an Achilles issue and searching for form on both flanks.
Wright still sees a way to punch through part of that gauntlet.
“I think if we can get to Brazil we could probably beat Brazil,” he said. “But then I think we’d have problems after that. I said England would reach the semi-final from the start.”
Keane doesn’t bother dressing it up. Asked about the prospect of facing Lionel Messi and Argentina, he didn’t hesitate.
“England would have absolutely no chance of beating Argentina in the semi’s, I just can’t see it.”
The message is stark. If England’s wingers don’t wake up – if Saka can’t somehow rediscover a version of himself through the pain – this World Cup run may already have a ceiling. And with the knockout rounds about to expose every weakness, the question is no longer just whether England can go the distance.
It’s whether their best wide player will still be standing when the real tests arrive.
