World Cup injury tracker: Declan Rice latest, William Saliba blow and Jordan Henderson freak arm break

The 2026 World Cup is down to its last four, meaning teams will be praying not to suffer any untimely injury setbacks in their quest for global glory.

Some of the big injury sagas heading into the tournament have come to happy endings, with Lamine Yamal now a regular fixture for Spain after returning to full fitness, while injury-ridden Neymar was able to get some minutes in what will be his final World Cup, before Brazil’s elimination at the hands of Norway.

However, many nations are still sweating over major concerns to top players. England have been dealing with a defensive injury crisis for much of the tournament and while that appeared to easing with Reece James making a return, Declan Rice‘s fitness is now up in the air after being struck down with illness ahead of the quarter-final clash with Norway. He was deemed fit enough to start the clash but looked out of sorts and was replaced at half-time.

Spain have seen their winger options limited since the end of the group stage, with Yeremy Pino and Victor Munoz still out, but that hasn’t stopped them as they stormed to the final. France, the team they beat in the semi-finals, will hope to go home on the minor high of victory in the third-place play-off, but will likely have to do it without William Saliba after he was forced off injured against La Roja.

See below for a full list of key injuries at this year’s World Cup.

Rice’s tournament has been hampered by injuries with neural back pain forcing England to manage his workload. This saw him miss England’s group-stage finale against Panama, but he has started both knockout games since.

He was then struck down by illness ahead of the quarter-final with Norway, and despite recovering enough to make the starting line-up after missing two days of training, he looked out of sorts and was replaced at half-time.

Rice did train on the eve of the Argentina clash to boost hopes of the midfielder starting in the semis, with Thomas Tuchel confident of his availability.

James has been out of action for England for their last three World Cup outings, once again unable to feature in their stunning round of 16 win over Mexico as he recovers from a hamstring problem.

His absence has been compounded by injuries to right-back alternatives in the England squad though he was finally able to return to fitness against Norway in the quarter-finals, coming off the bench.

Everything went wrong for France in their semi-final defeat to Spain, not least the loss of influential defender William Saliba to injury.

Saliba went down untouched on the ball and immediately looked dejected, with it quickly becoming apparent the Arsenal man would not be able to continue.

He faces a race against time to be fit for France’s third-place play-off on Saturday but Arsenal will fear their star centre-back has suffered a longer-term injury, whose 2025/26 season was maligned by numerous fitness setbacks which saw him miss a combined 12 matches for club and country.

The Crystal Palace winger suffered a collarbone injury against Uruguay and there were fears he could miss the rest of the tournament.

Those were allayed when Spain said X-rays showed Pino had not sustained a fractured collar bone but an acromioclavicular sprain.

However, he is yet to play any minutes for Spain since the group-stage injury.

Brentford midfielder Henderson was thought to be ruled out for the World Cup after sustaining a freak injury in the aftermath of England’s win over Mexico – but that may not be the case.

Henderson leaped over the advertising hoarding but fell awkwardly and snapped his arm. He underwent surgery before returning to England’s Kansas City base, opting to remain with the squad until the end of the campaign rather than go home.

However, in a stunning development, Henderson was included among the substitutes to face Norway in the last-eight and says he will “cross the bridge” of potentially featuring in the semi-finals “when we come to it”.

Argentina are dealing with another defensive injury blow after Medina hobbled off with a calf problem in their last-32 clash win over Cape Verde.

That match saw the return of Cristian Romero after the Tottenham centre-back suffered a knee injury in the group stage, but Lionel Scaloni has another headache to deal with after Medina’s withdrawal, with the defender then missing their controversial last-16 victory with Egypt. He was once again absent for their quarter-final win over Switzerland.

New Liverpool signing Munoz has been absent for the entirety of the World Cup so far after sustaining a calf injury in the build-up to the tournament. He then suffered a further setback when he was diagnosed with another muscular injury.