Tahan Oakley-Boothe has travel, heat and humidity to deal with


FIFA Under-17 World Cup awaits Spurs youngster



Steve Cooper, head coach of the England U-17 team, has selected Tottenham Hotspur prospect Tashan Oakley-Boothe in his squad for the tournament taking place in India.

Having just made his full debut, the ninth academy player to be bloodied by Pochettino, he will be travelling with the England squad this week. Their training camp will be in Mumbai and as part of the preparations will play a warm-up game against New Zealand on 1 October.

Mumbai (formerly called Bombay) is on India's west coast and is a densely populated financial centre, the largest city in India. You can see the temperatures the youngsters are going to have to contend with on the graphic. It will be a test for them.


After the warm-up game they will travel to Kolkata where the squad will be based for the tournament, which takes place between 7th and 28th October 2017. Kolkata (formerly known as Calcutta) is the capital of India's West Bengal state.


England face three opponents in the group stages, on Sunday 8 October we play Chile, on Wednesday 11th October we play Mexico and then on Sunday 14th October face Iraq.

Again, as you would expect, the temperatures are going to be high even though the players have now travelled  1,212 miles across the country from west to east on a 2hr 45 minute flight. 


The humidity will be very high which accelerates the evaporation of fluids from the body, which affects fitness, energy levels and mental capacity. Mistakes are more likely to creep into a game and concentration becomes more difficult.

It will certainly be a learning curve for the youngsters.




COYS