Declan Rice Lifts Lid on Injury Battle and Fixture Congestion

The English man was forced out in the 72nd minutes of the 4:2 win in the opener against Croatia. A decision the 27 year old labelled smart, as to help him fight for fitness ahead of the clash against Ghana.

The problem is in connection with the upper hamstring, which leaves Rice with pains radiating into his lower back region.

Declan Rice has been involved in 63 matches so far this season, 8 times in the Three Lions’ shirt, while playing 55 times for the London club, which reached the UEFA Champions League final, but lost to PSG in Budapest, and Carabao cup final, lost to Manchester City, while winning the Premier League title.

“The schedule was crazy but what can we do about it? You can’t sit and complain. We have to just get on with it for the moments like I had in the ­Premier League, winning that ­Premier League. You know you’d play as many games as possible to have that ­feeling again and ­knowing that there’s a World Cup at the end of it as well. You know you’d put your body on the line to be always in to play. It’s a lot of games but we’ll get our break at the end.” said the ex Westham skipper.

England has had one of the most weather unfriendly experiences in America since camping for the World Cup. First it was the hot weather conditions of Florida in June, where the team has its camp, to playing the opener in Dallas air conditioned stadium where temperature was set at 22C.

England’ next game would be in Boston’s open air stadium, an even more intense weather condition, but Rice maintains that the head coach Thomas Tuchel has reassured the players that they have the conditioning to cope with the atmospheric pressure.

“The heat’s going to dictate [our playing style] in spells but the manager’s been really clear with us and with this squad that we have the strength and power to outrun and outplay teams with our strength,” Rice said.