Harry Maguire's Disappointment Over World Cup Omission
Harry Maguire has lived through enough storms at Manchester United to think he’d seen it all. Then came the call from Thomas Tuchel.
Not a name on a squad list. Not even a curt text. A FaceTime.
One of United’s most consistent performers in the 2025/26 run-in, a defender who had played his way back into form and favour at Old Trafford, discovered he would not be going to the World Cup via a video call from the England manager. On current form, he had every right to believe his ticket to the tournament was booked. It wasn’t.
Tuchel instead built his central defensive unit around Dan Burn, Jarell Quansah, Ezri Konsa, Marc Guehi and John Stones, leaving a 33-year-old Maguire on the outside looking in.
“It was a surprise… I was really disappointed”
Speaking on The Rest is Football with Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer and Joe Cole, Maguire did not bother to dress the moment up.
“No, it was a surprise at the time,” he said on the latest episode of the Netflix show. “I said straight away that it was a surprise. I was really disappointed.”
There was no sense of entitlement in his words, just the conviction of a player who felt he had done enough.
“I thought I did enough to be in the squad and I thought I could have helped the lads out there. I thought I would have still had a part to play on the pitch and off the pitch as well.
“So no, I was disappointed at the time, but the manager’s made a decision and he’s gone with his 26 and it’s part of football and I’ll move on quick from here.”
That last line sounded like a defender trying to sprint away from a tackle that still stings.
Tuchel’s FaceTime verdict
If the decision hurt, the delivery method did not exactly soften the blow.
Maguire revealed that Tuchel chose to FaceTime players to explain his choices, calling both those in and out of the squad.
“No, he speaks to everyone, to be fair,” Maguire said. “So he FaceTimes everyone… Yeah, it’s quite an awkward call… I think he FaceTimes everybody. It’s quite a unique way to do it. It makes it harder probably for himself to see our reactions and things like that.”
Awkward is one word for it. You can picture the scene: a seasoned international, phone buzzing, the national-team manager’s face lighting up the screen with news he doesn’t want to hear.
When the conversation turned to the reasons behind his omission, there was no great tactical lecture, no detailed breakdown of weaknesses.
“He really said that he can’t really give me an excuse,” Maguire explained. Tuchel, he said, pointed instead to continuity.
“I think he said that he’s gone with the four lads that he got through the qualifying in the autumn, in the autumn camps where he felt like they did well during them six games.
“But he did say that he can’t really give me an excuse. But listen, that’s football. It was tough to take.”
For a player who has been a pillar for England at major tournaments, hearing there was no clear “excuse” must have cut deeper than any tactical justification.
A World Cup that may not come again
This is not just about one tournament. It is about time.
Maguire knows what the clock says. “I’m 33 now, so 37 at the next World Cup. It looks far away,” he admitted.
The regret in his voice was not about missing a starting place. It was about missing the stage itself.
“I was really disappointed. I wanted to go to the World Cup and play,” he said. Then he underlined what the opportunity meant to him.
“So I wanted to go, not just play, but like I told the manager, I wasn’t demanding to go and start the games. I’d have been happy to play one minute as long as I was there with the lads. So no, it was disappointing.”
This is a defender who has carried the England shirt through pressure-cooker nights at major tournaments, now reduced to hoping for “one minute” just to be part of it again.
Tuchel has nailed his colours to a different mast, trusting the centre-backs who navigated the autumn qualifiers and leaving out a player who once felt undroppable on the international stage.
Maguire insists he will move on quickly. The question that lingers is whether England have already moved on from him for good.
