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18th June 2018
04:46pm BST
"You know what, you try and shut everything out,” the current Huddersfield number two says. “Be as normal as possible, relax your mind and trust in the processes you have in place for every game regardless of who it’s for and at what level. The guys in the England camp in Russia now will be very calm.
"Yeah, there’ll be a few nerves and probably one or two more than usual because this is the World Cup. I mean, I’m watching Brazil and Switzerland and I know some of the guys playing and I know what they’ll have been going through before kick-off. But I also know they’re professionals and you just learn to shut out the noise.
"You harness the excitement and channel that as best you can.”
That may seem clinical to the ordinary fan, but Green insists that sticking to routine is the best way.
“Look, Gareth’s players are ready,” he says. “If they’re not ready now, then you’d hope they put their hands up to say they’re worried and it’ll be dealt with. But they’ll all know their jobs, and as a player you work through certain scenarios in your head, thinking about how you’ll react if different things happen in front of you. There comes a time where you have to say, ‘what more can I do?’”
Rest is critical in the final hours before kick-off. So, how will the players have slept last night in Repino ahead of the opener against Tunisia? Surprisingly, Green insists Southgate’s men will have been more like logs than nervous wrecks.
“I always slept well before games. The night before that opener against the USA in 2010 I had the usual sleep. No tossing and turning, no worries. It was pretty unremarkable. The biggest issue will be when they wake up and remember that it’s an evening kick-off,” says the man who made 12 appearances for England.
“Not because it’s unusual in any way because these boys are always playing games at night, either in the Premier League or the Champions League, but more in terms of quelling the boredom. Training will have slowed down and you’re doing less physically so there’s more time to kill.
"The boys will take a walk, there’ll be a couple of meetings, but the main thing will be no screens. Players tend to steer clear of phones and iPads and things because they affect your concentration a little bit. Saying that, I know that Andrea Pirlo sat playing Playstation a couple of hours before winning the Champions League and he could play some, so it’s very much whatever works for you.
"But certainly, most of the English lads will taper off the screen use. I’d drop into the rooms of some of the other guys and have a cup of tea and just chill out. But you have to fight that boredom.”
This evening as you make your way to the pub before kick-off or settle down in front of the TV at home, the tension will be palpable. And there’s that moment when you see the overhead shots of the England team bus nearing the stadium that makes it all feel very real. It’s bad enough watching from thousands of miles away, so what’s it like being on that bus as it closes in on the stadium?
“You know what, it’s a strange thing. In Rustenburg there were far more neutral fans than you’d expect, but that’s what a World Cup’s like," he says.
"Oddly, it’s not the same as a big away game in the Premier League or a final at Wembley and that’ll really resonate with the boys. They’ll almost be like ‘where are the fans?’ But regardless, there’s definitely a sense that this is it, that this is the pinnacle. There’s a level of expectation that you don’t get elsewhere.
"It’s something you’ve spent your entire career building up to and you just want to go out and play the game you know you can play and try your best to keep the emotions under control. It’s probably much tougher watching at home than it is when you’re playing.”Explore more on these topics:
