Time is running out for Foden to make England's World Cup squad

Wembley, Friday night: the clock on Phil Foden’s international resurgence is ticking louder than ever. Handed a start against Uruguay in England’s final home friendly before this summer’s World Cup, the 24-year-old spent 56 largely anonymous minutes on the periphery of a drab 1-1 draw, his involvement curtailed further by a bruising challenge from Ronald Araújo that left him hobbling to the touchline. The grimace on Foden’s face told its own story: a player who senses the biggest stage of all may be slipping from his grasp.

Only two summers ago Foden arrived at Euro 2024 as the Premier League’s standout performer, second only to Erling Haaland, Cole Palmer and Alexander Isak in the goal charts. Fast-forward to the present and he has started just two league fixtures since being hauled off at half-time in Manchester City’s 2-0 defeat at Old Trafford in January. Across three seismic City encounters this month—the two-legged Champions League tie with Real Madrid and Sunday’s Carabao Cup final against Arsenal—Foden’s cumulative playing time amounted to a solitary minute, a late cameo branded a “charity sub” by Wayne Rooney.

The statistics are stark, but the subtext is even more sobering. Pep Guardiola has repeatedly insisted he harbours “zero doubts” about Foden’s gifts, urging the Stockport-born midfielder to rediscover the “joy, the smile and happiness” that once defined his game. Yet Guardiola’s own team-sheet selections have spoken louder than any press-conference reassurance. Foden has been shunted into deeper roles, rotated wide and, on occasion, omitted entirely as academy graduate Rayan Cherki’s influence grows.

There have been flickers of the old spark: eight goals in nine November-and-December outings, a September strike in the derby against Manchester United and a 90th-minute winner versus Leeds. Each flashback, however, has been followed by another lull. Foden himself attributes the stop-start campaign to an ankle problem and “things going on off the pitch mentally,” but consistency—his hallmark during the 2023-24 season that delivered both PFA and Premier League Player-of-the-Year accolades—has proved elusive.

International opportunity, therefore, felt like a lifeline. Instead, Friday’s audition against Uruguay only muddied the waters. Stationed nominally on the right of a midfield three, Foden saw little of the ball, completed neither a key pass nor a dribble and departed shortly after the hour. Within seconds of his withdrawal Cole Palmer, the man most likely to usurp him in Thomas Tuchel’s pecking order, clipped a corner from which Ben White headed England level and later carved open a gilt-edged chance for Dominic Calvert-Lewin. Head-to-head, the Chelsea attacker landed the more compelling audition.

Tuchel, a coach who relishes spelling out internal competition to his squad, now faces an unenviable conundrum. Jude Bellingham and Morgan Rogers will return against Japan on Wednesday, while Eberechi Eze, Palmer and, in wide areas, Bukayo Saka, Anthony Gordon and Marcus Rashford all offer more prolific, penetrative alternatives. Foden’s versatility—once seen as an asset—has become a liability: he struggled on the flank during Euro 2024 and, with the No. 10 role hotly contested, there is no obvious niche.

History offers a sliver of hope. Cast to the margins during City’s 2022-23 treble drive, Foden responded with the finest season of his career. A similar resurrection would require a seismic surge in form between now and the Premier League’s climax, beginning with whatever minutes Guardiola grants after the current international break.

For the moment, though, the sands are draining from the hourglass. Each unused substitute appearance, each training-ground session where others steal the spotlight, narrows Foden’s path to the plane. Tuchel will run more auditions against Japan, but with every passing week the competition stiffens and the narrative hardens: unless something changes, and changes fast, Phil Foden risks becoming the most gifted English player to watch a World Cup from home.