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Gareth Southgate says England are well-prepared to face Tunisia

Manager Gareth Southgate says the England team 'know their jobs' ahead of their World Cup opener against Tunisia on Monday.

Southgate's squad trained for the final time at their Repino base on Sunday morning, before travelling to Volgograd to complete their preparations.

England have enjoyed a positive build-up and have no injury issues, forward Marcus Rashford having overcome a minor knee problem which prevented him training earlier in the week.

"They're ready," Southgate told the England team's YouTube channel on Sunday.

"If they played today, they'd be ready.

"We've got to make sure they don't do too much physically, don't overload them with information.

"They're clear on how we want to play, they're clear on the opposition."

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Southgate has already told the group what Monday's starting line-up will be and thinks they will benefit from the advance warning.

Gareth Southgate
Image: Gareth Southgate has already told the players who will be starting on Monday against Tunisia

"I think that's helpful that everything's settled," he said. "They know their jobs.

"The guys who aren't in the team are prepared and have trained well. They become a key part of what we do now.

"They have to support the players who are starting, but also be ready because anything can happen before the game, anything can happen during the game.

"We only progress as a collective. That's been the mentality from the day we started and will go right through the tournament."

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