The countdown to this summer’s World Cup has started and England have arrived in the United States to begin their tournament preparations.
Head coach Thomas Tuchel and a number of his squad flew from Birmingham Airport to Florida on Monday for their pre-World Cup camp in West Palm Beach.
Arsenal’s Declan Rice, Noni Madueke, Eberechi Eze and Bukayo Saka plus Crystal Palace goalkeeper Dean Henderson – who were all involved in European finals last week – will join the rest of the squad at a later date.
England’s first training session takes place on Tuesday morning local time, with temperatures forecast to be about 28C to 31C.
They are also scheduled to play two warm-up games against New Zealand on 6 June and Costa Rica on 10 June, before the World Cup officially starts on 11 June.
From Florida, Tuchel and his squad move on to their tournament training base in Kansas City, Missouri, which is six hours behind the UK.
With time at a premium between the end of the domestic season and this year’s tournament, Tuchel asked his players to go on holiday in the US or Caribbean to acclimatise to the sweltering heat and different time zones.
England’s opening Group L game against Croatia takes place on 17 June in Dallas, Texas – the same time zone as Missouri.
They then face Ghana on 23 June in Massachusetts and Panama on 27 June at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, with both US states a five-hour difference to the UK.
Tuchel has also added young Premier League players Alex Scott, Rio Ngumoha, Josh King and Ethan Nwaneri, along with uncapped Brighton goalkeeper Jason Steele, to his group for the camp in Florida.
