Thomas Tuchel’s staff have helped England players set up oxygen chambers and saunas in their own homes to prepare them for the extreme weather conditions at the World Cup this summer.
Many of Tuchel’s squad now have a hyperbaric chamber installed for oxygen therapy when they return home from training with their clubs. They also have “red-light saunas” to help recovery between matches.
This comes after last summer’s end-of-season England camp in Girona, Spain, where meetings were held to explain how they would cope with high temperatures and humidity at the World Cup. Players trained in heated tents to replicate the conditions expected in the US, Canada and Mexico at the tournament starting in 11 weeks.
Players were told how to get themselves ready across the entire Premier League season and staff from the Football Association were involved in coordinating the installation of the state-of-the-art equipment to maximise performance.
It is understood the hyperbaric chamber and sauna sessions are in sync with a programme operating under Tuchel when England – who face Japan in a friendly at Wembley on Tuesday – meet up for matches. While the FA has helped install them, it is the players who have paid for the machines.
“At home I’ve sorted all my recovery stuff out,” England midfielder Elliot Anderson said. “I’ve got a hyperbaric chamber, red-light sauna and stuff. I’ve really focused on the recovery side of things to get myself ready for the next game.
“I’ve been focused on the recovery side really, rather than starting yoga. I spoke to the staff at England and they helped provide me with those things to put me in the best place possible.”
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy increases the oxygen delivered to muscle tissues, which is a big factor in recovery.
Training with different oxygen levels is now part of the routine of the Premier League’s biggest stars. For instance, Erling Haaland uses a “hypoxic chamber” at Manchester City’s training ground to mimic intense physical sessions at 11,600ft above sea level.
“Hyperbaric is more oxygen, hypoxic gives you less oxygen,” Haaland explained on his YouTube channel.
England are expected to play in intense heat during their matches at the World Cup, starting with their opening Group L game in Dallas against Croatia. Tuchel’s team then travel to Boston to face Ghana, followed by Panama in New Jersey.
Between matches they will be training in Kansas, which is also expected to experience intense heat. Fifa has already confirmed that every match will have a water break after 22 minutes.
At the Girona camp last year, England players carried out fitness tests inside heat tents on exercise bikes. “We need to understand how to cool the players down, to drink. What our options are,” Tuchel has said.
“I have done pre-season there in Orlando and I will be very surprised if we do not suffer. Suffering is one of the headlines for this World Cup.”
There have been warnings that the temperatures at 14 of the 16 stadiums being used for the World Cup could reach “potentially dangerous levels” during the tournament. Tuchel will take his team to Florida before the tournament to acclimatise to the conditions and play friendlies against New Zealand and Costa Rica.
Nottingham Forest’s Anderson is among those who have been featuring in European matches for the first time and the recovery sessions are expected to help players such as him cope with playing three games a week for the majority of the campaign.
“It’s been tough but I’ve also really enjoyed it. You just want to play as much football as you can and having three games a week, recovery and going again, it’s something that I’ve always wanted to know if I could cope with and I feel like I’m coping with it well,” Anderson said.