Eberechi Eze gets on his bike as England's World Cup preparations heat up

The Guardian

a day ago

Eberechi Eze has opened up on the punishing training sessions at England's warm-weather camp here that Thomas Tuchel believes will prepare the players for the heat of the World Cup next summer.
Tuchel and his squad are at the exclusive Camiral Golf & Wellness resort, partly to prepare for the qualifier against Andorra in Barcelona on Saturday. But the focus since Monday has been to look at the bigger picture, which has involved monitoring the reaction of the players to extreme temperatures – with the help of ­biometric tablets and innovative sports-science methods.
The players have been asked to take a tablet and cycle for 45 ­minutes at a consistent level inside a tent that has been heated to a minimum of 35C. The Football Association's experts have been able to track their core body temperatures under stress – with the idea being that it will inform how they manage them at the finals in the US, Canada and Mexico.
Eze, who finished the domestic season on a high with the winner for Crystal Palace in the FA Cup final against Manchester City, said it was the first time he had seen such an approach in training.
'It was quite difficult to do,' he said. 'It was taking the tablets and you had to be on the bike for 45 ­minutes, which is a long time to be on a bike.
'You had to keep going and they monitored your heart rate, your actual temperature. It was just understanding and it was definitely helpful … a bit of an insight into ­yourself and how you will cope in those situations.'
Cole Palmer, the Chelsea midfielder, said: 'It was tough. It was 35C, 36C inside the tents and we had to get to a certain watts [level] on the bike and maintain it. For 45 minutes.'
Eze has been on fire since he scored his first England goal in the 3-0 victory against Latvia in late March, which was Tuchel's second game in charge. The first was the 2-0 win against Albania three days before. Tuchel has talked about the goal having inspired Eze, who went back to Palace and finished the season with nine in 13 matches.
The one that will always be remembered was against City to secure ­Palace's first major trophy and a place in the Europa League, although there is a complication on that front because of the majority stake that the club's co-owner, John Textor, holds in Lyon. The Ligue 1 club have also qualified for the Europa League. Uefa's rules forbid individuals from being involved with more than one club in the same competition to avoid conflicts of interest.
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'I really hope that Palace do get the reward because of what it took to actually achieve that,' Eze said. 'It would be a huge shame if that was not the case but I'm trusting that it will work out in the end. It should work itself out because there's players who have worked to be in this position. There are fans who have been with the team throughout the whole season and experienced everything.
'The main thing for me after the FA Cup win … when we were leaving the stadium, when we were on the [open-top bus] parade was looking at the fans' faces and seeing people in tears and people overwhelmed by what we've done. That's something that will live with me for ever.'
The FA has announced that Lee Carsley has signed a two-year contract extension with the England Under-21s. The manager is pre­paring to lead the team at the European Under-21 Championship in Slovakia this month, having won the tournament in 2023.