England will cope with busy schedule ahead of Commonwealth Games, says Danny Kerry

Mindful of the schedule the England women’s squad are up against in the coming months, head coach Danny Kerry has said his team’s well-being between now and October is at the forefront of his and his backroom staff’s minds.

Between July and October Kerry’s squad will take part in the Champions Trophy in Nottingham, the World Cup in Argentina with their schedule concluding at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi in October.

But Kerry has confidence that the plans in place to ensure his players avoid burn-out and are in the best possible condition to contest the three tournaments will prove successful.

“There’s no doubting it’s a heavy schedule and we’re pretty mindful of that,” he said following Great Britain’s 2-0 overall test series win against world No 4 Germany this week.

“After the Champions Trophy we have a two week recovery break where the girls will do light work but won’t be on the pitch. Then we have a two-week run in going into the World Cup and they can go away completely and between the World Cup and the Commonwealth Games they get a similar break.”

England will not only have the worry of exhaustion on their minds but also the question of acclimatisation with temperatures in Argentina likely to be around 20 Celsius while at the Commonwealth Games they will have to adjust to temperatures ranging between 30-35.

The squad will head to Argentina nine days before the World Cup begins and will travel to Delhi a week before they get their Commonwealth Games campaign underway with a view to better their bronze medal of 2006.

“It was a real decision around rest and recovery versus acclimatisation but the other issue in Delhi is getting food poisoning so if you’re out there a long time it can be a problem,” he added.

“In light of that the plan is to get the recovery in and then head out seven days ahead. It’s enough time to get used to the climate and by then we’ll have played enough matches so won’t need too many practice games.”