James captained a Chelsea side that overcame extreme conditions to win the Club World Cup
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England defender Reece James has issued a warning to his England teammates of "super difficult conditions" at the 2026 World Cup having experienced intense summer heat during Chelsea's Club World Cup campaign earlier this year.
James, who captained Chelsea to glory in the United States, played through conditions at both ends of the extreme weather spectrum, tasked with dealing with a heatwave in Philadelphia as well as thunderstorms in Charlotte.
With first-hand knowledge of the struggle that awaits, James says England are readying themselves for the World Cup heat next summer.
He said: "Everyone is aware of that. We are trying to prepare as best we can for that. It's super difficult conditions to play in that heat. Especially for us playing in England, there's not anything like that before.
"You feel the heat the minute you step outside the hotel. Once you are out there you adapt the longer you are there, when you are settled in one place and try to limit the things you can. Later kick-offs when it's not so hot and humid, that would definitely help.”
The 48-team showpiece event will feature 104 matches across 16 host cities in Canada, Mexico and the United States. Dallas, Houston, Miami, Atlanta, Monterrey and Guadalajara, where June and July temperatures often exceed 33°C, will be particularly tough to endure.
Fifa are increasingly likely to schedule World Cup matches involving European nations after midnight UK time in a bid to combat the heat problems.
Matches in venues such as Vancouver, Seattle, San Francisco and Toronto are expected to offer milder conditions at next year's finals. However, the 25-year-old James noted that poor pitch quality compounded the weather challenges.
"The pitches when we were there weren't the greatest either and made it a little bit harder but hopefully by the time the World Cup comes around it's better," he added.
England host Serbia on Thursday and visit Albania on Sunday in their last two World Cup qualifiers.
Additional reporting from Reuters