Peter Shilton and Des Walker were the only squad members to play every minute of every match, 720 minutes in all, a figure inflated by England's three-extra time matches.  Gary Lineker, who persisted despite a painfully swollen toe, and Chris Waddle, were the only other players to appear in all seven matches.  Lineker missed only the last seven minutes of the first match.  Waddle started all matches save the last, the third-place consolation match against Italy, when he came on as a substitute at 72 minutes.

Two squad members, Stuart Pearce and Paul Gascoigne, played every minute of the first six matches, but did not appear in the third-place match.  In that last match, manager Bobby Robson gave playing time to some of the squad members who had appeared not at all or very little in the tournament.  That may account for Pearce's absence in favour of Tony Dorigo after 25 successive starts at left fullback following the 1988 European Championship.   But Gascoigne could not have played against Italy anyway.  He was the only England player to draw two yellow cards and a resulting match suspension.  His second caution came in the semi-final against West Germany and, in an unforgettably poignant scene televised around the world, reduced him to tears as he realized he would not play in the final match were England to win the semi-final.  As it turned out, the suspension forced him to miss the third-place match instead.

Two players, Paul Parker and Mark Wright, did not appear in England's first match but started the remaining six.  Parker played every minute of the six, while Wright was substituted off only from the third-place match and that near its end.  David Platt also gained in favour through the tournament.  He did not play in the opener, but then made three straight substitute appearances, and, after scoring the last-minute extra-time match winner against Belgium, graduated from his "super sub" role to starter for the last three matches.

Tony Dorigo and Neil Webb made their only appearances of the tournament in the third-place match.  Steve Hodge was injured and, apart from the backup goalkeepers, was the only player not to make a single appearance in the tournament.

One squad member, Gary Stevens, who played the full 90 minutes in the first match against Ireland, definitely fell out of favour, perhaps partly because of Bobby Robson's change to a sweeper system in some of the later matches.  Stevens did not play again until the third-place match.

Two players were forced to withdraw from the squad during the tournament because of injury.  David Seaman, unlikely to play in any event, was the first with an injured thumb.  Bryan Robson was the second.  After lasting the full 90 minutes in the first match against Ireland with the aid of a  pain-killing injection for an injured toe, Robson strained his Achilles tendon and had to be taken off after 65 minutes of the second match against Netherlands.  He had to sit out the third match against Egypt, and, although he had a faith healer flown out to treat him, then himself flew home for surgery.  It was the second World Cup tournament in succession in which injury had forced the withdrawal of England's captain, although in Mexico four years previously he had remained with the squad.

Two England veterans ended their international careers in this tournament.  Peter Shilton, who won a record 125th cap in the third-place match, was the tournament's oldest player at 42 years, 292 days on July 7, 1990, the date of that final appearance.  He also became the oldest team captain in World Cup history.  The tournament also marked Terry Butcher's last hurrah for England.  The semi-final was his 77th and final appearance.