Jarell Quansah, Reece James to miss England vs. DR Congo with injury – Thomas Tuchel
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France Beat SwedenNorway AdvancesBracketPlayers to WatchJarell Quansah, Reece James to miss England vs. DR Congo with injury – Thomas Tuchel
Bayer Leverkusen defender Quansah was forced off against Panama, while James missed that game entirely. Angela Weiss / AFP via Getty Images
Thomas Tuchel has confirmed that Jarell Quansah and Reece James will both miss England’s World Cup round-of-32 game with DR Congo due to injuries.
Quansah, 23, was forced off after an hour during England’s group-stage victory over Panama on Saturday after sustaining an ankle injury. James missed that game with a hamstring issue.
Neither trained with the rest of the squad on Tuesday ahead of Wednesday’s match in Atlanta.
Djed Spence will be the likeliest replacement on the right side of defence with Ezri Konsa, who has started every game so far in the centre of defence, the only other fit alternative in the squad.
“They’re getting closer and closer, I saw both on the pitch,” Tuchel told his news conference on Tuesday. “In the nature of the injury Jarell is a bit ahead of Reecey, the race was close even to make it into my squad this time. We need to make sure we have more matches, that is main focus. They will be available soon.
“First of all, I trust my players, seen then for weeks, I picked them, that’s what football is all about. You have injuries, it’s not worth to be too long upset about it, focus on the problem, find solutions. It’s a team sport.
“We’d love to have Reece with us, we’d love to have Jarell with us. But they’re injured at the moment so other players will step up. We will push this over the line tomorrow as a team, no matter what happens.”
Chelsea defender James will again be absent for England (Rob Newell – CameraSport via Getty Images)Quansah made his first start of the tournament against Panama, with James having been the right-back of choice for the games against Croatia and Ghana.
England had already lost deputy right-back Tino Livramento to a calf injury on the eve of the tournament, with centre-back Trevoh Chalobah called up as his replacement.
Quansah was replaced by Spence for the final half an hour against Panama, with the Tottenham Hotspur full-back being deployed at both left-back and right-back over the course of the World Cup group stage.
Quansah joined Leverkusen from Liverpool last summer and made his senior England debut the following November. He has been capped four times.
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Tagged To: Reece JamesJarell QuansahDjed SpenceFIFA Men's World CupEnglandDodgers' Shohei Ohtani Scratched From Scheduled Pitching Start on Wednesday
Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani Scratched From Scheduled Pitching Start on Wednesday
This is a surprise.Noah Camras|
In this story:
Los Angeles DodgersLos Angeles Dodgers two-way star Shohei Ohtani won't be pitching in Wednesday's series finale against the Athletics, the team announced on Tuesday.
While Ohtani was initially scheduled to start on Wednesday, the team will now use a bullpen game instead, per Katie Woo of The Athletic.
Ohtani's next pitching start has been pushed back to Friday against the San Diego Padres. That is the second game of a four-game set with the Padres at UNIQLO Field at Dodger Stadium.
Shohei Ohtani will not start tomorrow against the A’s and will pitch Friday against the Padres.
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) June 30, 2026
Why Isn't Shohei Ohtani Starting on Wednesday vs Athletics?
It's currently unclear why Ohtani isn't making his start on Wednesday, and is instead pitching Friday.
Manager Dave Roberts recently said Ohtani still isn't 100 percent in his recovery from a knee injury. However, that hasn't stopped him from pitching the last couple of weeks.
Ohtani has been on a once-a-week pitching schedule, starting every Wednesday for LA. It remains to be seen how this change shakes up his schedule moving forward.
It's possible that the Dodgers wanted Ohtani to get some extra rest because of his knee. It's also possible the team planned on pushing him back at this point in the year with them playing 13 games in 13 days.
Ohtani has only pitched on less than six days' rest once this season. In order to keep that going, he would have had to be pushed back at some point in this stretch.
Shohei Ohtani Struggling After Dominant Start to Season
Ohtani's last three starts have been significantly less sharp than his first 10 this season.
Through 10 starts in 2026, Ohtani had allowed just five earned runs and sported a 0.74 ERA.
In his last three starts, he's allowed nine earned runs, and has seen his ERA rise to 1.58.
Ohtani has not only been pitching with a blister on his hand, but he's also thrown to Dalton Rushing in his last three starts since Will Smith went on the injured list.
Shohei Ohtani with Will Smith as his catcher this year: 10 G, 5 ER, 0.74 ERA
— Noah Camras (@noahcamras) June 25, 2026
Shohei Ohtani with Dalton Rushing as his catcher this year: 3 G, 9 ER, 4.34 ERA pic.twitter.com/BltB2rBqxF
Ohtani and Rushing weren't on the same page in his start last week, leading to some viral disagreements and more publicity than the team would have wanted.
For what it's worth, Rushing took accountability for his actions after the fact, and vowed to be better moving forward.
“Look, he’s the greatest player to play this game,” Rushing said to the California Post. “And he has every right to, one, call whatever he would like, and two, just attack the way that he wants to on the mound. Because no one on this earth can tell him that he doesn’t know what he’s doing out there.
“So we’re gonna move forward from it. I’ve talked to him a lot. Never in a million years could you ever have a bad thing to say about a guy like that. Never in a million years could you ever feel like a player like that is in the wrong. So it’s kind of up to me, as a young guy, to wear the situation, wear it on my chest, get over it, move past it, and make sure that we allow a guy like that to do what he wants to do.”
Roberts said earlier this week he hadn't yet decided if Rushing would catch Ohtani's next start. That decision has now been pushed back a couple days.
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Published 2 hours ago | Modified 2 hours ago
NOAH CAMRASNoah Camras graduated from the University of Southern California in 2022 with a B.A. in Journalism and a minor in sports media studies. He was born and raised in Los Angeles and has extensively covered Southern California sports in his career. Noah is the publisher of Dodgers on SI after contributing as a writer and editor over the last three years.
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