No burnout fears for England's Southgate
England boss Gareth Southgate has eased fears of player burnout ahead of the World Cup.
The Three Lions are a win away from qualifying for next summer's tournament in Russia ahead of their final two Group F games.
They face Slovenia next Thursday and Lithuania on Oct. 8, unbeaten and top of the group but the regular question of fitness remains ahead of a new tournament.
At Euro 2016 Harry Kane struggled after a long season with Tottenham, while West Brom gave midfielder Jake Livermore time off this month after saying he was already mentally tired.
There is a mandatory FIFA rest period between May 21 and May 27 before the World Cup where teams cannot play.
Former England bosses Fabio Capello and Sven-Goran Eriksson have blamed fatigue for previous tournament failures but Southgate feels his squad will be fine.
He said: "I played in tournaments, I played seasons that involved 45 or 50 games, I'm not a huge believer in burnout. I think there's mental fatigue, but physically it's about getting the right level of training, the appropriate stimulus to make sure people are ready.
"We should have enough expertise to get that to the best possible level. That requires all the players to be looking after themselves right. Somebody like Harry will do that.
Gareth Southgate's tactics against Scotland haven't inspired confidence, at least not among bettors. Paul Ellis/AFP/Getty Images
"He'll do whatever it takes to give himself the best chance, he's meticulous about his diet, meticulous about the way he recovers from games.
"Tottenham signing [Fernando] Llorente might help that. The other night they were able to take Harry off with 20 minutes to go. Those latter stages of games are the ones that have a real physical impact.
"There needs to be some mental switch off at the end of the season but the danger there is that you tail off too much and then can't get back.
"He [Livermore] didn't want to miss out. It was good management really, Fergie used to do it with [Peter] Schmeichel, take the short-term hit to get a long-term benefit."
Southgate is without five-goal Jamie Vardy with the Leicester striker sidelined with a hip issue while Raheem Sterling, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Dele Alli, Marcus Rashford and Daniel Sturridge have 20 international strikes between them.
Kane has 10 in 21 appearances for his country but Southgate insisted there will not be an over-reliance on him.
He said: "No, I think we've had good contributions from Lallana when he's been available, Dele will score, Rashford has started now, I think Raheem will score goals although he's not as natural as the strikers.
"I never go into games thinking 'I'm not sure where our goals are going to come from.'"
Source: espn.co.uk
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