Liverpool youngster Rio Ngumoha will travel to the USA with England for a pre-World Cup warm-up camp this summer.
Ngumoha was not named in Thomas Tuchel’s 26-man squad for the tournament on Friday; hardly a surprise despite the excellent progress made during his season with the Reds.
Nevertheless, it has emerged that the 17-year-old will still play his part in England‘s preparations, filling in for Arsenal’s late-arrivals following the Champions League final.
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Ngumoha set for England experience
Having developed so excitingly during a breakthrough campaign with Liverpool, it will surely not be long before Ngumoha makes his senior debut for England.
In the meantime, as journalist Henry Winter reports, the teenager will be given some experience ahead of a tournament which the Three Lions will fancy themselves to potentially win.
“Alex Scott, Josh King and Rio Ngumoha will travel with England on June 1 to Florida for warm-weather warm-up,” Winter posted on X.
The reason appears to be that Tuchel needs three players to take the places of Gunners trio Eberechi Eze, Declan Rice and Noni Madueke in training just before the World Cup kicks off.
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“Arsenal players arriving later because of UCL final,” Winter adds.
It is unclear for now whether Ngumoha is on a back-up list in case any of the three Arsenal players get injured and are unable to continue on to the USA.
However, in all likelihood, Tuchel will probably have other, more senior players ahead of Scott, Ngumoha and King, but they were perhaps reluctant to come out to train without taking part in the tournament itself.
Either way, this is superb news for Ngumoha as he ends what has been a terrific season on a personal level in brilliant fashion.
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