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England arrive in Miami

England players arrive in Miami

England players arrive in Miami

England’s World Cup squad have arrived in Miami to continue their preparations for the tournament in Brazil.

The players touched down in the early hours of Monday morning (UK time) following a nine-hour flight from Luton.

The first thing they did after checking in to the Mandarin Oriental hotel in the Brickell Key area of the Florida city was to stretch their legs by going for a short walk.

They will spend the next week acclimatiaing and they will play two warm-up games – against Ecuador on Wednesday and Honduras on Saturday – before they fly to Brazil, where they begin their World Cup campaign on June 14 against Italy in Manaus.

England manager Roy Hodgson, who said the journey was “very good”, has to submit his final 23-man squad to FIFA on Monday, although it can be changed if there is an injury right up to the first game.

Manchester United’s Phil Jones remains the only injury concern at present and standby players John Stones and Jon Flanagan have also travelled to Miami.

Hodgson says he will field an experimental line-up against Ecuador in the first friendly in the Sun Life stadium, which is the home of NFL side the Miami Dolphins.

“Our plan really on Wednesday is basically to start the people who didn’t start on Friday (against Peru),” said Hodgson, meaning the likes of Raheem Sterling, Luke Shaw and Rickie Lambert are likely to face Ecuador.

Meanwhile, Hodgson has promised that his players will sing the national anthem loud and proud this summer.

He said: “You very rarely play an international match against opponents and they haven’t got their hands on their hearts and singing their anthem as loud as they can, and we’ve made a decision that that’s what we’re going to do too, because we are proud, we are happy to be wearing that England shirt.

“We have been doing it for two years. We are proud to be England players and, in my case, England manager, so when the national anthem comes up it’s an obvious one for me that we sing it.”

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