Joe Bell’s return set to boost All Whites against England; Ryan Thomas on track for World Cup opener

Friday, 5 June 2026

All Whites midfielder Joe Bell and defender Finn Surman spoke about the challenge of playing England after the team trained in Tampa

Joe Bell is set to start for the All Whites against England in their second FIFA World Cup warm-up match.

The midfielder missed the 4-0 loss to Haiti in their first warm-up match while taking a cautious approach in recovering from a calf injury.

Fellow midfielder Ryan Thomas will train with the team for the first time in Florida on Friday local time as he eyes being available for their World Cup opener against Iran.

The All Whites face England at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa on Saturday afternoon (kickoff 8am Sunday NZ time).

All Whites midfielder Joe Bell in action in training in Florida.

The cavalry is coming for the All Whites – in the form of a trusty midfielder.

After sitting out Tuesday night’s horror 4-0 loss to Haiti in Fort Lauderdale, Joe Bell is set to return for Saturday afternoon’s high-profile FIFA World Cup warm-up clash with England at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa (kickoff 8am Sunday NZ time).

The 27-year-old missed four matches for his club side, reigning Norwegian champions Viking, leading into the All Whites’ World Cup camp, after suffering a minor calf injury.

That same sense of caution led to him not taking the field against Haiti, even though he had been involved in the vast majority of what the All Whites had done in training in Florida before their first warm-up match.

Speaking after the team’s first training in Tampa on Thursday local time (Friday NZ time) – the first he has been 100% involved in since they assembled last week – Bell said the All Whites’ medical team had done a good job of “building up the intensity and the load into the legs”.

“It was a calf strain, probably over a month ago now. There’s obviously these huge games coming up, so I’ve been taking it a little bit cautiously, making sure the body is in the right place going into the first game. I’m on track, so things are looking good.”

Bell was missed not only against Haiti, but when the All Whites played Finland in Auckland in March and lost 2-0 and when they played Ecuador in New Jersey in November and lost 2-0, matches he missed due to loading concerns.

He also missed both matches the All Whites played last October – a loss to Poland and a draw with Norway – but is a certain selection for coach Darren Bazeley when fit, a supreme organiser at the base of midfield who does lots of little things well and helps set a strong platform for his team-mates to express themselves.

All Whites captain Chris Wood admits his team have a lot of work to do in a short space of time after suffering a heavy 4-0 defeat to Haiti on the eve of the FIFA World Cup.

World No 4 England will be the highest-ranked – and highest-profile – opponent the world No 85 All Whites have faced since encountering World No 1 Spain at the FIFA Confederations Cup in 2009, a match they lost 5-0.

All Whites coach Darren Bazeley has known Tim Payne for two decades and believes he's handling his newfound social media fame better than some of his team-mates would have.

Bell said potentially facing the likes of Bayern Munich’s Harry Kane and Real Madrid’s Jude Bellingham would be just what they needed, coming nine days out from their tournament opener against Iran in Los Angeles.

“First and foremost, it's a great experience. They're going to be unbelievable players, and they're going to make us perform at our highest level in order to compete with them, which is the exact challenge we want, going into the World Cup.

“They're phenomenal players that are going to try expose our weaknesses, but that's exactly what you want going into it.

“It's going to be the mindset of recognising that it's going to be really tough, but taking positives from it.”

New Zealand captain Chris Wood and his team-mates are determined to create history at the 2026 FIFA World Cup, revealing their goal is to reach the knockout stages for the first time.

Since the FIFA rankings began in 1992, the All Whites have faced teams ranked inside the top 10 on 11 occasions, drawing twice – including against Italy at the 2010 World Cup – and losing nine times.

Right back Callan Elliot did running away from the team on Thursday in a precautionary move, after taking a ball to the head while playing the second half against Haiti. He has not had concussion symptoms, reported none after his latest individual work, and is set to train with the team on Friday and be available to face England.

Midfielder Ryan Thomas is set to train with the team for the first time in Florida on Friday – a key milestone as he looks to return from a hamstring injury in the All Whites’ World Cup opener against Iran on June 15 (June 16 NZ time).

Speaking on Thursday afternoon local time, Thomas said he had made progress “ahead of schedule” and would “definitely” be in a position to play some part against Iran, though a start looks unlikely at this stage.

He said it been “annoying” watching his team-mates from the sidelines after completing an individual programme to date in the US.

“I knew the situation going into the camp, so it's not like it's anything different to what I expected, but it's tough to come here and just sit on the sidelines and watch the boys train.

“Tomorrow I should be raring to go with the boys … so that’s good.”

Thomas and Bell watched the loss against Haiti – the All Whites’ heaviest in nine years – from the stands and Thomas offered his analysis of what went wrong.

“It was tough. We were a bit tentative at the start. After the first goal, we came into the game quite well. We controlled the tempo, that was quite good. We had a lot of the ball, created a lot of chances, put them under a lot of pressure – a little bit of [better] decision-making in the final third could have helped us out.

“Second half – I don’t know if it’s got something to do with the changes, or if it's got something to do with the climate –we just weren't quite where we should have been.

“They were very unorthodox, but had some good players, and it was maybe a good little slap in the face of the quality that we need, of the quality that we're going to be playing against.

”We've had a good chat about the game afterwards, so hopefully we can put that to work against England.“

All Whites – 2026 FIFA World Cup

Squad

All Whites: GK: Max Crocombe, Alex Paulsen, Michael Woud; DF: Callan Elliot, Tim Payne; Tyler Bindon, Michael Boxall, Nando Pijnaker, Tommy Smith, Finn Surman; Liberato Cacace, Francis de Vries; MF: Lachlan Bayliss, Joe Bell, Matt Garbett, Eli Just, Ben Old, Alex Rufer, Sarpreet Singh, Marko Stamenić, Ryan Thomas; FW: Kosta Barbarouses, Callum McCowatt, Jesse Randall, Ben Waine, Chris Wood

Fixtures/results (NZ time)

Friendlies

4-0 loss v Haiti

June 7, 8am: v England; Raymond James Stadium, Tampa, Florida

World Cup group G

June 16, 1pm: v Iran; SoFi Stadium, Los Angeles, California

June 22, 1pm: v Egypt; BC Place, Vancouver

June 27, 3pm: v Belgium, BC Place