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Marcelo Bielsa could be deprived of the opportunity to lead Uruguay into the World Cup this summer amid rumours that he could be on the verge of getting sacked.

The former Leeds United boss took over the Uruguayan national team in 2023, 15 months after getting the chop at Elland Road.

The divisive but influential manager has managed at two prior World Cups, taking his native Argentina to a disastrous group stage exit in 2002 and taking Chile to a more respectable round of 16 defeat to Brazil in 2010.

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'Uruguay spent a solid month with Marcelo Bielsa at the Copa America - and they decided they hated him'

Bielsa made an excellent start to life as Uruguay manager, winning 11 of his first 15 games in charge - including victories over Brazil and Argentina in World Cup qualifying - and taking them to the semi-finals of the 2024 Copa America.

However, tensions have emerged in the couple of years since then as Uruguay have won just five of their past 16 games, most recently falling to a 5-1 friendly defeat to the United States in November.

South American football expert Tim Vickery believes it is not beyond the realms of possibility that a similar result against England on Friday night might mean the Uruguayan FA call time on Bielsa's reign ahead of the World Cup.

Vickery told Hayters TV: "This is the real thing from a Uruguay point of view.

"When he took over, you're thinking, 'This could work for Uruguay: they need a generational change, there's players there - think of Valverde, Bentancur, Ugarte, Darwin Nunez, Araujo...he's got a spine there to play the way that he wants to play, this could work'.

"They started off like a train. They beat Argentina in Buenos Aires. They beat Brazil more convincingly than I've ever seen Uruguay beat Brazil. They start off the Copa America in the States two years ago like a train...and then it all went off the rails.

"The problem seems to have been that they spent a solid month with Bielsa for that Copa America - and they decided they hated him.

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"Soon afterwards, Luis Suarez retired from international football, and he called a press conference, and he just spat blood about Bielsa. He said, 'He's unbearable, we don't like him, if you walk past him in the corridor, he won't even say hello to you'.

"Since then, I think, in the last 12 World Cup qualifiers, eight times they failed to score a goal, and they're not creating - this is a Bielsa side! They're set up to attack, to create. They haven't been doing it.

"It got even worse with the last game. It was in November. They lost 5-1 to an under-strength United States, and Bielsa afterwards, he called a press conference and he spent two hours heaping abuse on himself.

"He said, 'I'm a terrible person, everyone who touches me gets worse as a result, if we all go out for a group meal, I'll take a newspaper so I don't have to talk to you'....on and on and on he went. He's never happier than when he's criticising himself.

"But he's not resigning. He still believes in his capacity to do a job.

"Having said that, if they go down to a heavy defeat [against England]...it's a high risk game, it really is.

"Another heavy defeat to England at Wembley, and I think there's every chance that he will lose his job."

Steven Chicken has been working as a football writer since 2009, taking in stints with Football365 and the Huddersfield Examiner. Steven still covers Huddersfield Town home and away for his own publication, WeAreTerriers.com. Steven is a two-time nominee for Regional Journalist of the Year at the prestigious British Sports Journalism Awards, making the shortlist in 2020 and 2023.