Thomas Tuchel has England plan for “impossible” scenario laid bare by Club World Cup

Players have struggled with the extreme heat in the US at the Club World Cup and England boss Thomas Tuchel is keen to mitigate its effects at the 2026 World Cup

England boss Thomas Tuchel is reportedly planning to host a warm-weather training camp ahead of the 2026 World Cup due to concerns about the hot weather in the US. The tournament is being hosted across the US, Mexico and Canada and some players have got a taste of conditions at the Club World Cup.

Chelsea appeared to struggle with the heat in their 3-1 defeat to Flamengo and Blues boss Enzo Maresca says the weather has made it “almost impossible to train”, with his players having a shortened session in 34-degree conditions on Monday morning.

“It’s almost impossible to train, to make sessions because of the weather,” Maresca said. “We are just trying to save our energy for the game. This morning’s session has been very, very, very short.

“It’s not easy with these conditions, but we are going to try to do our best. It’s the reality. It’s difficult to work with these temperatures. But we are here, and we will try to win tomorrow’s game.”

And Tuchel is keen to ensure England are not as affected by the heat at the World Cup, with the Guardian reporting that he wants to hold a warm-weather training break in March and a pre-tournament ‘boot camp’ in Miami in June.

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The report states that Tuchel wants to give his players as much exposure to the extreme heat as possible and has tasked the FA’s medical and sports science teams to come up with plans to help lessen the effects of the heat.

Despite Tuchel’s plans, former Canada boss John Herdman has warned that nothing can prepare England for the extreme weather. “If you think back to the last World Cup in 2022, players got spoiled there because they were all five minutes from the stadium, the training base was nearby and it was all in one city,” Herdman said.

“This World Cup is going to be massively challenging and having worked in North America I’ve had some experiences that I’d like to share with as many people as I can. We started off in the Rose Bowl at 36 degrees of heat and then two days later we were in Denver with a tornado warning.

“Then you hit Charlotte with a 90 degree heat and another time before a key game you get flooded and have to evacuate the hotel at three in the morning. We had that game in Denver against Mexico in the Gold Cup, you had sirens with a weather warning and you’re not getting back on the field when a tornado starts and you sit on the tarmac for five hours.

“Then you hit Charlotte with 90 degree heat, another time a day before a key game there was a storm at 3am in the morning, the hotel was flooded and we had to move to a different hotel. This World Cup will see such a shift across one Continent and you can prepare as much as you like but I think the trick might be to embrace it rather than over-organise it.

“The teams that rock up with the right mindset might have such a big advantage. The training in the heat every day, after a while the guys just don’t enjoy it.”

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