Thomas Tuchel uses clever England tactic to prepare players for 2026 World Cup
The 2026 World Cup is just over a year away and new England manager Thomas Tuchel is already looking for the marginal gains which could help end the Three Lions' 60-year wait for a trophy
England will train in tents to prepare for the searing heat of the 2026 World Cup, manager Thomas Tuchel has confirmed. The tournament kicks off in just over a year's time and will be played across the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Tuchel's squad are currently on a warm-weather training camp in Girona, Spain as they prepare to face Andorra in a qualifier on Saturday. The match will be played a Espanyol's home stadium in Barcelona, where it's expected to be 25 degrees come kick-off.
It could be even warmer in north America next summer, with Mexico set to be the hottest host country. As part of the training camp in Girona, Tuchel and his coaching staff will assess how players cope with and recovery from extremely hot and humid conditions.
Fitness tests will be carried out inside the tents, as they work on exercise bikes in temperatures similar to what they're likely to be playing in next June and July. Tuchel said that he expects his players to 'suffer' in the tournament's conditions and confirmed that he'll travel to the Club World Cup this summer in the USA to experience the conditions for himself.
"It is important to see matches now in America, and in Miami at three in the afternoon," Tuchel explained. "I will see that. How it looks, and we need to understand how to cool the players down, to drink. What our options are.
"Let's see because it is after the season, so it will be very similar. The actual experience is for the players, but I have done pre-season there in Orlando and I will be very surprised if we do not suffer. Suffering is one of the headlines for this World Cup."
England still need to qualify for the World Cup and have made a perfect start under Tuchel. The Three Lions sit top of Group K after beating Albania and Latvia 2-0 and 3-0 respectively in March.
After facing Andorra, the lowest-ranked team in their group, England will play Senegal in a friendly at City Ground in Nottingham next Tuesday. The fixture comes just five days before the start of the Club World Cup which many of Tuchel's stars are involved in.
But they won't be released early by the FA. "The discussion was very open," Tuchel said last week. "Very quickly we also understood this is a very important camp for us with one year to go until the Word Cup.
"Why send players if we want to cherish every day we have together. What signal would it send to the group to send players away? I was an advocate and I could see the reason for the players who go to the Club World Cup to maybe leave a little earlier, to maybe change the squad.
"I can understand the argument from especially the clubs who would love to see the players get a rest but we have a strong argument for ourselves and our goals we want to reach.
"We are building a group and a togetherness. We want to develop a camaraderie and it is only possible if we take every day seriously."
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