Gareth Southgate gave his England players a rabble-rousing speech and urged them to make history before they fly to the World Cup.
The Football Assiciation revealed the squad numbers for the 26 players before they fly to Qatar on Tuesday morning. England captain Harry Kane will wear the No9, Raheem Sterling is No10 and Kyle Walker has been given the No2 shirt despite not being fit for the first game.
Jordan Pickford is No1 and Marcus Rashford No11 while James Maddison gets the No25 shirt. And to get them in the mood for glory, Southgate spoke to the players and staff after they arrived at St George’s Park on Monday.
England boss Southgate urged the players to seize the opportunity in front of them and reminded them they will be among the favourites to win the trophy. They go into the World Cup in poor form after six games without a win and relegation from the Nations League.
But Southgate told the players they must believe in themselves and reminded them about the recent success of reaching the semi final in 2018 and the Euros final last year.
There had been some fitness concerns over whether Raheem Sterling and Callum Wilson - who have suffered with illness over the past few days - would be cleared to report but all 26 players arrived.
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John Stones was missing from one group picture but there were no injury concerns of any note even if some players did light recovery sessions after tough games at the weekend.
They will fly for Doha at 10am on Tuesday, arriving around 5pm local time and then do a light training session at their Al Wakrah training facility.
The players were due to have a special guest as a send-off on Monday night. Pop star Ed Sheeran played for them at St George’s Park during the Euros.
Speaking in his final press conference ahead of the trip to Qatar, Southgate suggested the Three Lions have their eyes set on glory. He said: “My only focus is, how do I help this team to have a brilliant tournament? And I think we’ve got a great chance. We’ve perhaps, as we did before Russia, qualified and managed expectations at the same time.
“I know what this group of players have been capable of. They’ve been to the deep reaches of tournaments. They know what that feels like. They know they can do that again. What people say or think about me is irrelevant. My job is to free the players of any of that.”
England kick-off their Group B campaign against Iran on Monday afternoon before taking on the USA and Wales in their final fixtures - by which time they will hope to have booked their place in the last-16.
