England use palm cooling devices and fitness trackers to combat World Cup heat in Florida

Thomas Tuchel’s England squad are deploying a suite of heat-management technologies at their World Cup training base at the Palm Beach Gardens Tennis & Pickleball Centre in Florida, with match temperatures regularly exceeding 35 degrees Celsius across venues in the United States.

Players have been offered Whoop fitness trackers — worn by athletes including Rory McIlroy and Patrick Mahomes — which can monitor heart rate, body temperature and breathing during matches while remaining compliant with FIFA regulations. The device can be worn on the wrist or higher up the arm.

England are also trialling cooling vests and palm cooling devices, which are designed to lower the body’s core temperature as rapidly as possible. The palm cooling units, which retail at around £800 each, will be used in training and in matches, including Saturday’s warm-up friendly against New Zealand. Manchester United are among the Premier League clubs already using the same technology. Hydration breaks have also been introduced into training sessions.

Midfielder Jordan Henderson, who has first-hand experience of extreme heat from his spell in the Saudi Pro League, said the squad’s focus this week is on building tolerance rather than full acclimatisation.

“You just build your capacity to these conditions,” Henderson said. “I know that depends on where you’re playing in the country, it can be different all over so it’s hard to really adapt, but it’s about this week to build that capacity, to get used to the heat a little bit.”

Henderson added that the support infrastructure around the squad had been impressive. “We’ve got an amazing team behind the team and how much research they’ve done and tried to cool down and recovery and all that sort of stuff — that’s top, top level. Hopefully that can give us a little edge as well when we get into the tournament, but it’s the same for everyone so we’ve just got to concentrate on the football.”

England face New Zealand on Saturday before a second warm-up fixture against Costa Rica ahead of the tournament proper.