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Published 23 November 2022 4 min read
England Men's Senior Team

England World Cup diary: Kalvin Phillips and the cats on camp

Written by:

Kalvin Phillips

The Three Lions and Manchester City midfielder fills us in on the latest from England's World Cup camp

Generally, in the mornings I sleep until late, with breakfast not until around 11am. So it means I get a bit of a lie-in and can chill out before we travel to training at around 12pm.

We will then train, do a little bit of gym and get back to the camp to just relax and rest.

This afternoon, I did some media work and will probably watch a few more of the World Cup games. I've also been playing basketball, alongside things like physio and recovery and watched a few films as well.

When it comes to basketball, I think I'm probably the best in camp, not that I want to big myself up too much. Rashy is quite good as well, Raz is alright, Mason is not bad and Phil is pretty good too, considering he doesn't play much basketball.

Dec has really come on since last year and hasn't been too bad either. Obviously, he plays when Mason does so he's become quite good as well. They're both getting better the more they play.

As for the worst? Jack Grealish. Ben White isn't the best either, but Jack is definitely the worst because he doesn’t have the technique.

There's also this Wolf card game going on. I haven’t been playing, I’ve just been watching but it seems good. At first, it was a small group and now there's probably a group of 12 or 13 of them involved.

It's definitely one you can watch, as it’s quite funny and even if I’m not around there, when they get somebody out, you can hear them cheering by the pool.

Dave the cat has proved popular around the hotel
Dave the cat has proved popular around the hotel

I have to tell you about the cats as well. So me, Kyle and Stonesy usually sit in the same corner of the canteen and on the first night, a cat wandered up to us, so we chucked it a little bit of chicken and stuff like that.

And then the next day, we went to the same corner and he was sat there waiting for us. So Stonesy gave him the nickname of Dave. Whenever we go for food, we feed Dave and he sits and chills with us. There's another cat called Paul who has one eye. He doesn’t come into the canteen much though.

As for the names, I think it was just the first name which sprung into Stonesy’s head. They are typical English and Yorkshire names, so Stonesy called them Dave and Paul.

I probably spend most of my time with Ben, Jude and Stonesy. I’ve known Ben for a few years now and during the EUROs we spent a lot of time together, so he's probably the one I spend the most time with. I know Stonesy from club level obviously and Jude just because he is a nice guy who I get on really well with.

 I think Jude could be one of the best players in the tournament
I think Jude could be one of the best players in the tournament

Jude is an unbelievable player. He's been this good since he started coming away with England. Obviously, you didn't get the chance to see that as much in the EUROs but I feel like he has gone to another level now and you can see at club level how well he's doing, the goals he’s scoring and how well he’s doing putting it all together.

For him to bring that into his first World Cup game and to be the first person to score in this year's World Cup for England is a massive thing for him. So I'm very happy for him, because in the EUROs he was very eager to show everyone what he was capable of and now he's got the chance.

I think he's going to be one of the best players in the tournament.

As for me personally, I feel good. I’ve obviously had the first week here to kind of get the training and fitness under my belt and now I feel good after I've done quite a few hard sessions.

FIFA WORLD CUP QATAR 2022