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If Reece James is not fit to play against Panama then who will England manager Thomas Tuchel turn to?

The natural replacement is Tottenham's Djed Spence, who started England's draw with Ghana at left full-back, but can play on either flank.

Other candidates could include Bayer Leverkusen defender Jarell Quansah, who is normally a centre-back but does sometimes play as a full-back on either side of a four-man defence.

Tuchel could also move Aston Villa's Ezri Konsa from his centre-back position, where he has started for England in their two group games.

One final option could be to change systems to play three centre-backs and use a more attacking wide player as a wing-back.

Defenders in Tuchel's England squad: Ezri Konsa (Aston Villa), Jarell Quansah (Bayer Leverkusen), John Stones (Manchester City), Marc Guehi (Manchester City), Trevoh Chalobah (Chelsea), Dan Burn (Newcastle), Nico O'Reilly (Manchester City), Djed Spence (Tottenham)

Sami Mokbel
BBC Sport Senior football correspondent at Boston Stadium

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Reece James missed training with England on Thursday which has thrown his fitness into doubt for the Three Lions' final Group L game against Panama.

The 26-year-old right-back suffered a hamstring issue in the goalless draw with Ghana on Tuesday and did not train with his team-mates in England's penultimate session before Saturday's game.

England

A bit of team news to bring you now from BBC Sport's senior football correspondent Sami Mokbel ..

England

This is much simpler.

If England finish second in their group they will play the runners-up in Group K - which is currently Portugal - in Toronto at 00:00 BST on Friday, 3 July.

Portugal play group leaders Colombia in their final game on Sunday (00:30 BST).

If Portugal win that game, then England will play Colombia in a re-match of their last-16 tie at the 2018 World Cup, which Gareth Southgate's side famously won on penalties.

Should Portugal draw, then they will face England.

Should they lose, the Three Lions could face DR Congo, if they beat Uzbekistan in their final game and overhaul Portugal on goal difference. DR Congo's current goal difference is -1, while Portugal's is +5.

Hold your horses Simon ... we're going to that next!

England

If England remain top, they will play a third-placed team from one of four groups:

• Group E: Ecuador
• Group I: Senegal*
• Group J: Algeria*
• Group K: DR Congo*

* = Group still to be completed

Which country England play next is determined by a formula, as each third-placed finisher could play one of four different group winners.

The best thing to do is keep across BBC Sport's knockout draw predictor, which is updated using the latest live score data and will show the final draw for the last 32 as soon the final group games are completed.

Anyone familiar with BBC Sport's knockout draw predictor will know by now that, as it stands, England will play Ecuador in the last 32.

That is assuming England finish top of Group L and Ecuador remain in the same position in the third-place ranking table.

All things remaining equal, the Three Lions will play Ecuador in Atlanta at 17:00 BST on Wednesday.

England are currently top of Group L ahead of Ghana on goal difference going into Saturday's game against Panama.

Thomas Tuchel's men must equal or better Ghana's result against Croatia to remain at the summit and play a third-placed team in the last 32.

If both games are draws, England win the group.

If both win, top spot would be decided on goal difference, which sees England on +2 and Ghana +1, but the Three Lions have scored three more goals.

Should goal difference finish identical, it will go to disciplinary record (England -1, Ghana -2) and then, finally, England would secure it on Fifa world ranking.

England

We're going to turn our attention now to England, who are back in action on Saturday night (22:00 BST) for their final Group L game against Panama.

Panama are already eliminated from the 2026 World Cup having lost back-to-back games against Ghana and Croatia.

England and Arsenal midfielder Eberechi Eze spoke to the media in Kansas whilst we were all fast asleep here at home. But don't worry, we're going to bring you all the lines from his news conference shortly.

First though, let's have a look at how Group L looks and what England need to progress to the last 32.

Jonas Olsson
Former Sweden defender on BBC Radio 5 Live

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Pleased with the result, pleased with the performance. I think the game lacked a bit of quality, lacked a bit of ambition. Japan was more or less already through, Sweden needed a point so it was that kind of game.

Sweden came back from a 5-1 defeat against the Netherlands so it was all about getting a defensive performance. I thought we did that and then the guys up front showed that we had a lot of quality.

[On ups and downs of the scores] It's not normal in Swedish teams to be fair. Normally we are built from a strong defence, that has always been our case, we are organised, structured, we don't overdo it but we rarely lose games 5-1 or with big numbers. This team is different. The results and performances have been really volatile.

The mood in Sweden is, we don't know. On our day we can probably beat any team at the World Cup but on our day we can also lose to anyone. I think people were happy with the performance [against Japan], which was more Swedish in a sense. It was more organised and defensive.

Speaking of Graham Potter, this is how he reacted to finding out Anthony Elanga's full-time frustration was because he didn't realise a point was enough for Sweden to progress to the last 32.

Chris McKenna
BBC Sport journalist

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After being thrashed 5-1 by the Netherlands in their second group game, it was far from a straightforward task for Sweden to get a point against an impressive and hard-working Japan side.

Graham Potter had to pick Sweden up after they finished bottom of their group in a nightmare qualifying campaign yet navigated their way to this tournament through the play-offs, thanks to their Nations League ranking.

Here he managed to not only lift them, after that calamity against the Dutch, but also when they went behind on the night - as defeat would have left them sweating on their progression.

It did take a moment of magic from Anthony Elanga, who was visibly frustrated at full-time for not finding a winner, but Sweden showed resilience to respond in this game and Potter has achieved what was surely the minimum objective for them in reaching the knockout stages.

They will need to be more defensively resilient than they were against the Netherlands if they face France in the last 32, of course.

Yet if Potter can find a way to ensure Viktor Gyokeres, Alexander Isak and Elanga are still a threat - while keeping it tight at the back - they cannot be ruled out.

Keifer MacDonald
BBC Sport journalist

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Former Southampton defender Maya Yoshida believes the 26-man squad selected by Japan manager Hajime Moriyasu is capable of reaching unprecedented territory in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Yoshida, 37, who captained Japan in 2022, has travelled with the squad to this tournament as a non-playing "support player" to provide leadership behind the scenes.

He believes Japan's ability to compete with some of Fifa's top-ranked nations is driven by the increasing number of players featuring regularly in Europe's top five leagues.

"Of course, now more players play in Europe, especially high level European competitions," said Yoshida, who was capped 127 times.

"At the beginning, I was at VVV Venlo, a bottom Dutch league team, which was very good for me to have a first step, but time has changed now. Japanese players' reputation is much higher.

"So now, [on a] daily basis or weekly basis, every player plays with or against World Cup level players.

"That experience is a huge difference. That's the main thing for me. But shouldn't forget that that road started by the older players like [Shunsuke] Nakamura, [Hidetoshi] Nakata, Shinji Ono.

"These guys are opening the door and our generation start to go and now the door is even wider."

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Few nations look better equipped for a deep and unexpected run than Japan, whose blend of individual quality, recent form and all-round experience makes them one of the most intriguing outsiders in the competition.

In 2022, the Samurai Blue defeated both Germany and Spain to top Group E and advance to the first knockout round.

But it wasn't to be. Instead, Japan suffered familiar heartbreak as they were eliminated at the round-of-16 stage for the fourth time after a penalty shoot-out defeat by Croatia.

Now, four-years on, they have secured a place in the last 32 and five-time champions Brazil await.

Japan continued to demonstrate their class on the ball against Sweden with an easy-on-the-eye team goal to take the lead against Graham Potter's side.

We went into a fair amount of detail earlier on about Group F, which the Netherlands have topped with seven points.

However, more probably needs to be said about Japan who have finished as group runners-up.

There is always at least one team that defies the odds and emerges as the surprise package of a World Cup. Could it be Japan?