England World Cup Diary: Conor Gallagher ready to play his part

It started with a good flight over to Qatar. We had a really nice plane where we could lay down and have a sleep if we wanted to or could watch a movie, so it was quite chilled out. I watched a movie for the first two hours and then after a bit of lunch, slept the rest of the journey so the flight went really quickly for me.

We arrived at the hotel and I have to say it is brilliant. It's like a small village, I don't really know how to explain it. There's like an outdoor cinema area, there is pool, table tennis, Teqball and there's a little basketball court set up. So there's a lot going on.

It's very open yet still close together so as players we're very lucky and fortunate to be able to stay here for the World Cup.

It’s just special to be at this World Cup. A lot of work has been put in for us ahead of this tournament, with everything they've set up for us and even the little things like putting pictures of our families and friends in our rooms to make feel at home and to make us as comfortable as possible. 

For the first few days we've been here, I’ve been getting up around 9.30am and would then go to get some breakfast before the training prep starts at 11am. We would then do our pre-training work before the main session starts around 12.30pm. 

Training has been really tough the last couple of days because it is obviously very hot and a lot different to the weather back home. We want to get used to it quickly to better prepare us for Monday’s game (which is a 4pm kick-off in Qatar) so we have been training earlier in the day but I think the next couple of days we're training a little bit later when it's less hot so we are fairly fresh for the first game.

After training, we either do recovery work, gym or any media stuff we have to do. Then we head back to the hotel and chill out for the afternoon and evening. We might have one or two meetings through the day as well so it's been pretty busy but we're enjoying it and we're getting used to the place and everything about it, which is good.

On Thursday night Jude and Trent were playing on FIFA on the cinema screen and I was watching them for a bit and they are at quite a good standard. To be fair, the lads in the squad are pretty decent at basketball too. I thought I was good at basketball but I don't think I can compete with most of the lads. But I could definitely give anyone a go at FIFA because I play it a fair bit at home so if anyone wants a game on that I’d happily beat them.

This is my first senior World Cup and I'm just very happy and honoured to be involved in it. I'm very grateful and thankful to the manager, Gareth, for showing his belief in me. I'll always train as well as I can and always be there if called upon, in providing encouragement to others and generally always give my best in any scenario. Whether I’m on the bench, playing or whatever it is, I will always try to do my job as best as I can and try to help the team.