Jude Bellingham has been given a boost by Thomas Tuchel after being awarded the coveted No 10 shirt for England's World Cup campaign. The Real Madrid midfielder will wear the number ahead of rivals Morgan Rogers and Eberechi Eze, with Elliot Anderson taking the No 8 shirt.
England's preparations began at a training camp in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Tuesday, with 21 of Tuchel's 26-man squad present. Temperatures reached 33°C as the squad trained ahead of their opening World Cup fixture against Croatia on 17 June.
Midfielder Kobbie Mainoo expressed the squad's confidence, saying: 'One hundred per cent. I feel like everyone in the squad and the staff believes we can win it but it doesn't come easy and the first game, the second game, we have to build and build.'
Veteran Jordan Henderson, at his fourth World Cup, emphasised the importance of preparation: 'It's about bringing the best version of ourselves, individually and collectively, and working every day to achieve our dreams. We all know the talent this squad has and how we can hurt teams. But we know we have to be ready to do all the invisible work too.'
FA chief executive Mark Bullingham tempered expectations, noting that only twice in history has a European team won a World Cup outside Europe. 'It's very hard to win in heat, altitude, humidity and so on,' he said. 'Other countries are better at dealing with that because they've grown up with it. So it is going to be hard, but we'll be doing everything we can to go as far as possible.'
Several players, including Declan Rice, Bukayo Saka, and Dean Henderson, will join the squad late after European finals. Tuchel has added young talents like Liverpool's Rio Ngumoha and Arsenal's Ethan Nwaneri to the Florida group to supplement numbers.
