Marc Guéhi had started all four of England's Nations League games this fall. That run ends this week. The Football Association said at 11:45 a.m. U.K. time Monday that the Manchester City center back has withdrawn through injury and will stay with his club, and that Newcastle's Dan Burn, 34, has joined Thomas Tuchel's group at Tottenham Hotspur's training ground in his place.

The problem is Guéhi's hip. He came off at halftime of City's 3-1 loss at Nottingham Forest on Saturday, and manager Enzo Maresca said afterward the defender had asked to be taken off because of an injury. BBC Sport reported that Guéhi had a scan Sunday on what it described as an ongoing issue, and City-focused outlets citing that reporting say the problem had been bothering him in recent weeks.

A starter Tuchel has leaned on since day one

Guéhi has been one of the fixed points of Tuchel's England since the German took the job in January 2025. According to BBC Sport, he started all but one of England's games at the World Cup this summer and all four Nations League matches in September and October.

That is what makes Monday's change more than a routine swap. England need only to avoid defeat against Croatia at Wembley on Thursday (7:45 p.m. GMT, 2:45 p.m. ET) to secure a spot in March's quarterfinals, and they then travel to Madrid to face world champion Spain at the Metropolitano on Sunday. England are second in Group A3 with nine points, three behind Spain. To finish first, they would have to win both games and finish with a better goal difference than the Spanish.

What Burn's return changes at the back

Burn has 11 caps. He was part of Tuchel's World Cup squad, where he made two appearances off the bench, and he missed the previous international window with an ankle injury, so this is his first England camp since the summer.

With Guéhi gone, the center backs in the squad are Ezri Konsa of Arsenal, Everton's Jarrad Branthwaite, Bayer Leverkusen's Jarell Quansah and Burn. Branthwaite and Burn are the two left-footed options among them. Trent Alexander-Arnold, Ben White, Djed Spence and Newcastle's Lewis Hall are the full backs in the group.

Burn, at 6-foot-7, is a very different type of defender from Guéhi. Whoever lines up Thursday, Tuchel is choosing a new partnership in the game that can settle England's place in the quarterfinals.

City's problem doesn't stop at the break

For Manchester City, the timing is awkward. Saturday's halftime withdrawal was Guéhi's second in three Premier League games, after he was taken off at the interval of the 2-1 loss at Aston Villa last month, when a loose touch had led to Nicolas Jackson's opener. City have now lost three league games in a row, to Villa, Brighton and Forest, and conceded early in all three.

Josko Gvardiol also came off at halftime at the City Ground after struggling during the week, and Nico O'Reilly, who replaced him, was left out of England's squad on Friday with a back problem. Guéhi, who joined City from Crystal Palace in January and is one of Maresca's four captains alongside Rúben Dias, Erling Haaland and Gianluigi Donnarumma, will spend the international break with City's medical staff instead of with England.

Neither the FA nor City has said how long Guéhi will be out, and the scan result has not been made public. The practical answer for England comes Thursday: Tuchel will name a back line without the one center back who had started every game of this campaign, with a point against Croatia all that stands between England and the quarterfinals.