Jadon Sancho join England’s training

England Under-17 football team's talented attacking midfielder Jadon Sancho on Wednesday hit training during their first official practice session ahead of the FIFA U17 World Cup campaign.

England play Chile on Sunday in their Group F opener. Iraq and Mexico are the other two teams in the group.

Sancho is likely to play in the group stages of the tournament after which he has to leave for club commitments with German giants Borussia Dortmund eager to get back his services after the international break. "At the moment, he is available for the group stages. Let's see what happens after that if we qualify," an England team source said.

England sweated it out at the Sports Authority of India (SAI) complex here for two hours.

The Young Lions had a training camp in Mumbai where they played a friendly against New Zealand and won 3-2. Before that, the Steve Cooper-coached side played against Brazil and South Africa at home.

London-born Sancho was part of Dortmund's first-team squad for the first time at the weekend, but did not feature in the 2-1 victory over Augsburg. Sancho has netted 13 goals in 16 games so far for the Young Lions. He joined the German outfit from English Premier League heavyweights Manchester City on the final day of the summer transfer window.

This is England's fourth participation in the U-17 World Cup and their second in a row. The only edition in which they failed to get beyond the first round was the last one in Chile two years ago, when they collected two draws and a defeat. The U-17 side is one of two English teams to have won a penalty shoot-out in the finals of a FIFA competition, having outsmarted Argentina from the spot in the Round of 16 in 2011.

The other side is the U-20 team, who edged Mexico in the quarter-finals in 1993.

By contrast, the senior team has been involved in three penalty shootouts and lost every one, all in the FIFA World Cup. England lost on penalties to Spain in the final of the UEFA European Under-17 Championship 2017.

Nevertheless, they qualified for the U-17 World Cup 2017 by edging Republic of Ireland 1-0 in the quarter-finals.