Thomas Tuchel tossed the ceremonial first pitch at the Kansas City Royals’ home ballpark as England took a breather following their World Cup-opening win.
The England manager was joined at Kauffman Stadium by captain Harry Kane along with defenders Dan Burn and Djed Spence, a little over a day after the 4-2 victory against Croatia in Dallas.
Kane, who scored twice in that game, shared on social media: “Great recovery day with the boys at the baseball. Would love to give batting a go one day! Thanks for having us @Royals.”
Having played the full match versus Croatia, the Bayern Munich striker did not feature in a behind-closed-doors friendly against Sporting KC that was arranged for squad members needing minutes.
England won that practice game 5-1 at their Swope Soccer Village training base, with Ivan Toney netting a hat-trick and Aston Villa pair Morgan Rogers and Ollie Watkins also scoring. Burn, Jordan Henderson, Eberechi Eze, Marc Guehi, Kobbie Mainoo, Djed Spence and Jarell Quansah were among those involved. The match was split into two periods of roughly 25 minutes.
The Football Association set up the friendly to build match fitness for certain players. After returning from Dallas around 10:30pm local time on Wednesday, the squad had most of Thursday off. Family and friends were able to meet players immediately after the Group L win over Croatia and again on Thursday inside the camp, before preparations begin for Tuesday’s game against Ghana in Boston (21:00 BST).