Travel, time-zone disruption, heat and humidity combine to provide an almighty challenge at what is the biggest edition in the global showpiece’s history.

England touched down in the United States on Monday to begin preparations in sweltering Florida, with friendlies against New Zealand and Costa Rica lined up before the build-up continues at their Kansas City base.

N/A

Rosenblatt was a key part of Sir Gareth Southgate’s backroom team between 2016 and 2023 and told the Press Association: “I think if you take the perspective it’s going to be really hard, then it is.

“When I was there, it was always very much, ‘These are the problems to solve’.

“I think fundamentally each tournament has had its real uniqueness.

“We had nine days to prepare for Qatar (2022), which is from a physical performance perspective really challenging, and then there was obviously heat acclimation as well.

“Russia (2018) was brilliant because of the amount of time we had to prepare, but there was also an enormous amount of travel.

“You were sometimes getting back at 6.30, 7 in the morning and then trying to get some food into the lads. They’re eating chicken goujons at half six in the morning.

“All of them have got their uniqueness and I think it’s the team who stays calm and prepares the best, obviously with the right players, that can give you the best opportunity for success.”

This will be the hottest World Cup since the US hosted the tournament in 1994, and Rosenblatt says the focus now will be on the players’ thermal load and getting them used to being uncomfortable.

N/A

“You’d be surprised how quickly a human body adapts,” said Rosenblatt, who left his “dream job” as England performance lead to set up 292 Performance three years ago.

“It’s really easy in a team sport to paint the picture of ‘the team will struggle’. Inevitably you might have five or six players who are going to absolutely thrive in that environment.

“You’re going to have five or six, maybe less usually, two or three, who are like, it’s a disaster and it’s really hard and could even be dangerous in some ways.

“Then you’ve got the middle, who will just kind of go one way or the other, based on your preparation.

“It’s about understanding who those players are, what are they going to respond to and making sure you take care of the middle group by doing everything possible to help them adjust, and you’re really watching out for those outliers.

“Then fundamentally it’s about good decision-making around that as well, like how often they’re playing, what training’s like, how they’re recovering.”

England will be able to utilise the controlled environment of their plane to aid that as they travel more than they have since Russia eight years ago.

The ability to have a home away from home in Kansas City can also be a benefit, continuing the theme of having their own environment rather than a vast hotel with “no sense of team or connection”.

“Fundamentally they would have taken a judgment that the environment and conditions that they can set up in their camp and the feeling of coming home every time feels better than constantly (moving),” Rosenblatt added.

“The other one, when you’ve constantly got different hubs, you have to set that up every single time, so by travelling every time there’s a level of exhaustion that takes place as well.”