After months of preparation, England are ready to begin their World Cup campaign. Mexico and South Africa will lift the curtain this evening at the Azteca Stadium, with the Three Lions starting their Group L opener next Wednesday against Croatia – a nation they share plenty of history with.
Thomas Tuchel officially took the reins at the start of 2025, with everything building towards this summer. The German is one of the most meticulous coaches in the game, with his attention to detail extending far beyond the training pitch. Every facet of preparation is considered to have his team ready for the task at hand. In addition to the coaching staff Tuchel has assembled, the England set-up boasts some of the best qualified experts to ensure no stone is left unturned.
Hydration, Sleep, and Recovery Crucial
Hydration, sleep, and recovery will be crucial in demanding conditions across Mexico, the US, and Canada. Leading football physiotherapist Dominic Rae describes the tournament as 'one of the most recovery-critical World Cups to date, where marginal gains in sleep, hydration, and recovery may prove decisive.'
Rae, Head of Sports Medicine and Performance Specialist at Ten Percent Club, takes Metro through some of the biggest mistakes England fans hope Tuchel and his staff have avoided in their bid to end 60 years of hurt.
Sleep is the Easiest Performance Enhancer
'A bad night's sleep is terrible if you are playing at the World Cup. Sleep is the easiest and cheapest performance enhancer. Even just us going to work without sleeping, think how you feel. Now imagine you've got off a flight, stepped out in front of thousands and thousands of people and you have got to go up against Kylian Mbappe. It's pretty difficult.'
'Monitoring sleep is vital, especially in players who might be chronically fatigued having gone from the Club World Cup and through their domestic season over the last 12 months. It is a phrase we use with our children sometimes but even footballers can get overtired. When you are chronically fatigued, it's hard to sleep and get the right rest. It's going to be something very important. The time difference shouldn't be too bad for England. The key thing England need to do is have a strategy on this. Sleep is a pillar, more than a marginal gain. It's something you need strategy on.'
Get the Logistics Right
'Even things like; is your hotel on a flight path – it's a simple thing from a noise cancellation aspect. Don't book hotels on a flight path and this is something a good team operations manager will be looking at.'
'Another thing that will be considered is if the hotel is open to the public. A lot of big Premier League clubs, if they are staying in a hotel, it's their hotel, they pay for the whole thing. If they can't do that, they will pay for their own floor to make sure they have control over all the variables within the hotel.'
Stay in Your Routine
'Where I have seen a lot of coaches and camps make real big mistakes is they get giddy in this camp feeling and do things like change meal times and put evening meetings in the schedule. That doesn't happen in their normal routine.'
'These players have played 50 games this season without that, they've had a normal routine but now they are in a tournament environment where suddenly there are 8pm meetings and dinner is pushed to 9pm, for example. Simple things like eating closer to when you're going to bed, it changes your routine, it affects your ability to go to sleep which changes your ability to get into proper REM sleep.'
'These are things I have seen coaches make catastrophic errors with, when they don't look at what normal routine is for their players and what it has looked like at their clubs.'
Sleeping Pills Common but Natural Sleep is Essential
'Football has a bad culture of using sleeping pills. But this is where England will have an advantage, at least earlier on in the tournament from a sleep perspective because their games are all in the middle of the day, local time.'
'From a sleep perspective, it shouldn't be too bad. What you find is when teams have real late kicks offs, players never sleep. They struggle to switch off. Your adrenaline is so high from the game and they take so much caffeine, they just don't sleep. England's timings help them there. But then they are playing in hotter conditions compared to later in the day so it's pick your poison.'
'Football has a big problem with that. Natural sleep is always better. Pills are used very widely after games. That might be just once or twice a week normally but over the course of a tournament where you are playing every three or four days, that can become quite a lot and it doesn't help your sleep routine.'
'There are natural ways to get in that routine. If we are talking purely from a performance point of view and it is a choice of sleep or no sleep, you take the sleeping pill. There is always a player welfare and holistic approach to all this and all teams will have doctors that will manage this. And the doctors in these environments will be very experienced. Any doctor getting to this level in their career won't be junior. But teams should be going into this with a clear strategy and clear timings.'
Pick the Right Flight
'I say this from experience, get the earlier flight. If you and the team have your dinner at 7pm, arrive to ensure you can still have it at 7pm. These are things you have full control of; you have the private plane, you are paying for the airspace. You micromanage this to make sure the routine stays the same because these are all things that make a difference. I've seen cases where changed schedules and broken routines can be a problem.'
