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Prince & Princess of Wales

Prince William visits Team England ahead of World Cup

On Thursday morning the Duke of Cambridge visited Team England’s World Cup training camp to meet the squad and wish them good luck ahead of the World Cup in Russia next week.

The Duke of Cambridge, who is President of the Football Association, joined the England squad at a practice session at West Riding County Football Association. The team were preparing for their warm-up match against Costa Rica later that evening in Leeds which they ended up winning 2-0, meaning that they head to Russia having won both of their warm-up games.

The Duke of Cambridge started his visit by chatting with England manager Gareth Southgate and team captain Harry Kane before posing for a photo with the whole squad.

Whilst with the England team, the Duke of Cambridge presented Trent Alexander-Arnold with his England shirt ahead of his England debut against Costa Rica. The England team applauded as the 19-year-old Liverpool player was handed the number 22 shirt.

The Duke of Cambridge presents Alexander-Arnold with his shirt. (Photo: @KensingtonRoyal/Twitter)

The Duke of Cambridge also took time to personally praise Danny Rose for recently going public about his battle with depression. He said to the England and Tottenham player: “I think it’s really, really good what you did…well done. You should be really pleased. Loads of support from me on that.”

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and the Duke of Sussex recently launched a mental health awareness campaign called Heads Together. The campaign is to help people have conversations about their mental health as well as give them access to support.

England’s first World Cup match is at 7 pm on Monday 18th June against Tunisia. Their second match is at 1 pm on Sunday 24th June where they will face Panama. England’s final game of the Group stages of the World Cup is against Belgium on Thursday 28th June at 7 pm.