England star Jude Bellingham came up with a novel way of coping with the 33C heat in Kansas on Thursday, stripping to his underpants as the team were put through their paces.
He and the rest of the squad — that’s captain Harry Kane alongside him — had a gruelling session on exercise bikes.
But it won’t be the heat that threatens England when they take on Mexico in Mexico City – it’s the altitude and thinner air that could cause trouble.
The city is nearly one and a half miles above sea level.
Mexican newspaper El Universal cynically called on their team to ‘make England run’ during the crunch match, predicting: ‘The visitors will gradually tire.’
England’s army of supporters face being vastly outnumbered at the Azteca Stadium by the host country’s cohort of noisy fans.
On Tuesday, when Mexico beat Ecuador to reach the last 16, a million fans cheered in the streets of the capital, with three people crushed to death in the melee.
England also need to prepare for dirty tricks by Mexico supporters.
England star Jude Bellingham wipes his face during a training session while stripped down to his underpants on Thursday
Before the Ecuador match, hundreds gathered outside their opponents’ team hotel sounding car horns, revving motorcycles and playing trumpets.
Boss Thomas Tuchel has admitted Mexico have a ‘huge advantage’ heading into the last-16 match due to the altitude.
The team’s earlier games were in Boston and New York, both at sea level, Dallas (400ft above sea level) and Atlanta (1,000ft) – but Mexico City is 7,300ft up.
England will be returning to the Azteca Stadium 40 years on from their famous 2-1 defeat to Argentina in the 1986 World Cup quarter-finals – when Diego Maradona scored his infamous ‘Hand of God’ goal.
Mexico have played 89 games at the Azteca – and lost only twice.
The national team are unbeaten in World Cup matches at the venue, including three wins in this tournament, having scored seven goals without reply against South Africa, Czech Republic and Ecuador.
