England hold first World Cup training session as Southgate and Kane are honoured by locals
Gareth Southgate has overseen England’s first training session this morning as the team gets down to business ahead of the start of the World Cup.
The team touched down on Russian soil on Tuesday and started work in Zelenogorsk as they gear up for their opening fixture with Tunisia on Monday.
England threw open the doors of their training base to the public with a temporary stand built to house interested spectators.
Boss Southgate was presented with a loaf of salted bread as a gift from the locals while captain Harry Kane smiled as he received a golden trophy.
There was one notable absentee as the session got underway.
Manchester United striker Marcus Rashford was forced to sit out with a knee strain, although England officials were keen to stress this was only a precautionary measure.
SLIDESHOW: The 32 star players for every World Cup nation (Click image below)
Tottenham midfielder Eric Dier was cleared to take part by Three Lions medical staff but was running with his left ankle heavily strapped as he shook off a knock.
Southgate said last night: “Marcus took a slight knock, but nothing too serious.
“We will have a look at that ahead of Tuesday’s session which is open for everybody to see, but other than that, everybody came through fine.”
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“Across three weeks, we have been really pleased to get the 23 we picked through all of the sessions.”
Meanwhile, tickets are still available for as many as 20 World Cup 2018 games in Russia just 24 hours before the tournament kicks off.
England’s opening game against Tunisia is remarkably one of those still looking to sell out.
Russia’s opening game against Saudi Arabia at the Luzhniki Stadium only sold out on Tuesday, while tickets remain for two of the three pricing categories for the Three Lions’ game on Monday in Volgograd.
Good luck lads #threelions https://t.co/JSCOuPVwvJ
— Wayne Rooney (@WayneRooney) June 12, 2018
120,000 extra tickets were released for the finals only last week, which FIFA insist is the reason for the large number of unsold seats and not as a result of a lack of public interest.