Thomas Tuchel's final 26-man England squad for the 2026 World Cup will be announced on Friday, and right now there are 55 players waiting for their phones to ring. Some will be celebrating; others will be devastated. Football is rarely so binary, or so brutal.

It is a moment that defines careers and colours summers, and four former England internationals have spoken candidly to BBC Sport about what that call — or the absence of one — actually feels like when it comes.

Micah Richards: 'I just wanted to cry'

For Micah Richards, the 2012 European Championship selection process left a wound that arguably never healed. Two days after Manchester City's title-winning 'Agüero moment', the right-back was expecting Roy Hodgson to add to the celebrations with an England call-up. He had made 23 starts in the title-winning campaign. He had been recalled under caretaker Stuart Pearce. His direct rival, Kyle Walker, was injured. The logic seemed sound.

Instead, when his phone rang, it was Pearce — not Hodgson — who delivered the news that he had not made the cut. Hodgson wanted Richards on standby; Pearce wanted him at the London Olympics. Richards chose the Olympics, opting to go somewhere he felt genuinely wanted.

The press framed it as a snub to his country. When Gary Cahill was injured and Martin Kelly — who had not even been named on the standby list — was called up ahead of him, the narrative only hardened. Richards finished his international career with 13 caps, his last coming at just 23 years old. A player who envisaged 70 or 80 England appearances ended up barely in double figures, shaped in part by one difficult phone call managed poorly by the people involved.

Stephen Warnock: waiting and not knowing

The uncertainty can be just as corrosive as the news itself. Ahead of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, Aston Villa left-back Stephen Warnock and Everton's Leighton Baines were in direct competition to serve as Ashley Cole's back-up. Both had been named in Fabio Capello's provisional squad; both returned from the pre-tournament camp in Austria still unsure of their fate.

Warnock described sitting at home, waiting for a call from a number he had been told to expect, before a time he had been told to watch for. The mechanics of hope — knowing roughly when your future will be settled, staring at a screen — are their own particular form of torment. The call, and the outcome of it, underlined just how fine the margins are at international level and how much of a player's career can hinge on decisions entirely outside their control.

What the stories tell us

What connects the experiences shared by Richards, Warnock and their former colleagues is the sense that the emotional management around squad selection has often fallen short of what players deserve. These are not abstract roster decisions; they are career-defining moments delivered, sometimes, through third parties or communicated with less care than the gravity of the situation demands.

With Tuchel set to finalise his selections on Friday, the players in his provisional squad of 55 will be acutely aware of all of this. For the manager, it is a football decision. For the players receiving those calls, it is something far more personal.

The 2026 World Cup, hosted across the United States, Canada and Mexico, begins next summer. England's squad will be confirmed publicly on Friday, but for many of those 55 players, the summer will already have been made or broken long before the announcement goes out.

Frequently asked

When will Thomas Tuchel announce his England World Cup squad?
Tuchel is set to publicly announce his final 26-man England squad for the 2026 World Cup on Friday. All players in the provisional 55-man group will have been contacted individually before the public announcement is made.
How many players can England take to the 2026 World Cup?
England will take a squad of 26 players to the 2026 World Cup, which is being co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Why did Micah Richards miss out on England's Euro 2012 squad?
Roy Hodgson chose not to select Richards for Euro 2012, instead offering him a standby role. Stuart Pearce delivered the news on Hodgson's behalf and asked Richards to join the Great Britain Olympic squad instead. Richards accepted, but the decision was widely and incorrectly reported as him snubbing England. Hodgson never selected him again.