2 days Ago By [email protected] (Jeremy Cross)
Both Declan Rice and Kieran Trippier missed training. Their absence may have sparked fears among supporters, with man Rice the lynchpin of Gareth Southgate's midfield and Newcastle captain Trippier still filling in at left-back, while defender Luke Shaw battles to return to full fitness ahead of the Round of 16 clash with Slovakia on Sunday. But there is no cause for alarm.
It's understood the two stars did their own programmes inside instead, in a bid to manage their workloads at . Nothing is left to chance during England training. Each session is micromanaged, in a bid to give the Three Lions the best possible chance of success.
So it came as quite a shock when some of Gareth Southgate's stars got drenched by one of the sprinklers this lunchtime. Either the bloke who operates them was having a bit of fun, or he'd let his standards drop. One local resident who lives close to the media centre doesn't appear too enthralled with England's presence.
His home is five houses down and can be seen from the window of the media centre. So he's decided to stick a big German flag on top of his flagpole in his back garden. A Spanish TV crew got into quite a pickle while trying to attend England training to do some filming.
One member of the production team rang FA media bosses to say they couldn't find the exact location of the place England were at. No wonder. Instead of going to Blankenhain in Weimar, the buffoons had travelled to another place with the same name.
And it was almost 400.
