Thomas Tuchel insists “the pressure is on” Cole Palmer to “fight” for his England spot but the Three Lions boss is encouraged by the length of the Chelsea star’s “stride”.

Palmerhas endured an injury-hit season for Chelsea in which Enzo Maresca and now Liam Rosenior have been forced to manage his minutes due to a persistent hamstring problem.

He’s not played for England since June – his only cap under Tuchel – and must prove his worth to the German boss in the upcoming friendlies against Uruguay and Japan if he’s to make it into the squad for the World Cup this summer.

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The 23-year-old has rarely looked in full flow at Stamford Bridge this season but Tuchel hopes he’s come through the worst of niggling injury issues after noting the return of his “long strides” of late.

Tuchel said: “Honestly, he has to show because we have more evidence without him than with him so the pressure is on him. He had a difficult season but he has also had a difficult spell with the national team.

“He was only once available for us and when he was available, we decided to stick with the same squad so there is big competition for his best position, number 10. He really tries.

“When I hug him, that means he is smiling otherwise he would not get a hug. He is in good spirits, he is open and he is communicating and is showing his quality.

“He is very engaged in the group and these are very important steps to show the performance to be involved in the group and have connections within the group so he will get his chances during the next matches.

“We saw good data lately, I saw him live against Arsenal and for the first time in a long time, I had the feeling his stride was back to the original lengths. Before I felt he was not free and the stride was not long enough, the acceleration was not there and the movement was not free.

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“I got the feedback from him and the feedback from Chelsea was that he felt during this game he was much, much better and he had a very strong game against Aston Villa with a huge physical output that we could see and from there, that was the first step.

“Before, we saw the physical output is matching also like the impression we have that was lacking something but he is back to full confidence and we see it in training. He is not pulling out or holding back. At the same time that is what we wanted.

“We have had four training sessions and he needs to show up. He cannot hold back. He needs to understand he fights for his place and we will not hand anything to anyone on a silver platter and he did this in a very nice way in exactly the right way.”