World Cup 2026: Rice Confident and Fit Ahead of England vs. Ghana Match

Declan Rice says he is ready to “put his body on the line” and bring his best to the 2026 World Cup.

After his 63rd appearance of the season in England’s opening group match against Croatia, Rice admitted the schedule has been “crazy” and he has played an “obscene” number of games for club and country.

The Arsenal midfielder was substituted in Dallas and has been nursing a lower‑back issue since Christmas, raising questions about his fitness for the tournament. His Arsenal teammate Bukayo Saka is also managing a lingering Achilles problem, illustrating the physical demands on players.

Rice insists he is fit, ready to play and wants to start every match, including the next group game with Ghana in Boston on Tuesday. He told ITV (Mirror): “You get on with it. Obviously, it’s an obscene amount of games. The schedule is crazy but what can we do about it? You can’t sit and complain. We have to just get on with it for the moments like I had in the Premier League winning that Premier League.”

“You know you’d play as many games as possible to have that feeling again. And knowing there’s a World Cup at the end of it as well. You know you’d put your body on the line to be here always and to play. It’s a lot of games, but we’ll get our break at the end.”

Rice added: “It’s obviously still on me on the day to go out there and perform. And that’s the thing with football, you go into a game, you always hope that the best version of you can turn up. But it’s like, you’re a bit like a tennis player or a golfer sometimes.”

“Sometimes you have your game, sometimes you don’t have your game. You’re constantly trying to find your best levels and I’ve managed to do that for a lot of periods of this season. And obviously, I want to bring that into the World Cup.”

Rice was substituted after 72 minutes against Croatia, a decision he said was “smart” because he was feeling a little neural pain in his hamstring, a problem he has been managing since Christmas.

He said: “Obviously been blessed and fortunate enough to have played in as many games as I can so far in my career – an insane amount of games for my age. I just love playing football. I love being durable.”

“I love having that rhythm of playing three games a week at club. I wouldn’t like playing once a week, having to wait until another week until the next matchday. I like to keep the momentum going, and I’ve always been like that throughout my career, so it’s just come natural to me.”

“I’m ready, I’m fit, raring to go. I think it was a smart decision to come off. I was feeling a little bit of neural pain in my hamstring, which I was managing from after Christmas with Arsenal for a very long time.”