ZURICH -- England have left nothing to chance ahead of their opener with France as they cope with the scorching temperatures in Zurich, with coach Sarina Wiegman saying the heat will not derail preparations for Saturday's match.
Temperatures reached 33 degrees Celsius on Wednesday in Zurich, where the Lionesses are based. The team trained in the midday sun on Wednesday but England have robust measures in place to tackle the boiling heat in Switzerland.
"Of course we have protocols in place, strategies, which players who have been around longer are familiar with that because they've played in circumstances like this -- for other players, they get to for the first time.
"We could already practise it in the first week of our training camp because in England it was really hot too, so we have these cold vests, we have [an] ice box, ice drinks they can drink before training session they could also cool down a bit, get your temperature a little bit lower with [drinks like] Slush Puppies.
"We have ice cold towels at the rest moment in the training sessions; they get the towels if they want to. So we make sure we are hydrated. Take another rest and do those things to keep your body temperature low."
Wiegman later added they're using cryotherapy too.
When asked about them training in the hottest part of the day, Wiegman replied: "We did today, I think it's cooling down over the next couple of days. We also know that we play 9 p.m., 6 p.m., 9 p.m. in the group stage, so we don't expect it to be this hot. Today we didn't change the schedule."
Wiegman said the potential heat on Saturday will not change the way which she approaches the match and she will judge any changes on player impact and exhaustion as she usually does.
"What we do now is get prepared for Saturday, for France and we're going to do everything to win that game, when we sub we do it because it's necessary to change the game or to sub someone who gave everything that needs to go out," Wiegman said.
"I will not think of managing the heat at that point -- after that game, we recover and then we come together as a team with the medical and technical staff and look at how does everyone come out of this game. Then we move forward to the next game against the Netherlands."