BWARK OF THE NET!
Chicken pride Rice on menu if Dec scores
■ from CHRIS McKENNA in Doha
DECLAN RICE has vowed to do a chicken dance if he scores at the World Cup.
The midfielder has hatched his eggciting plan ahead of England’s opener against Iran on Monday in Doha. The 23-year-old will do his jig in honour of West Ham first-team coach Kevin Nolan, who was famed for his chicken celebrations (below).
“I did promise Kevin that my next goal, I’d run off and do the chicken,” Rice told the Lions’ Den
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on England’s YouTube channel. “I think I’d end up doing 10 celebrations at once.”
Rice was one of the England stars at Euro 2020 as the Three Lions reached the final at Wembley.
But this will be his first go on the biggest of all football stages.
Rice revealed how manager Gareth Southgate inspired the squad when they met up earlier this week.
He said: “I think from the moment we got to St George’s Park, that’s when it hit me that we are going to a World Cup. Because of the Premier League, there’s not been that chance to switch our mindset.… when Gareth spoke, it was goosebumps stuff.
“If you believe and push yourself, then, anything is possible and now we are on the biggest stage. There’s less than 250 people that have represented England at a World Cup and I’m one of them.
“It’s hard to explain what it actually means.”
Meanwhile, James Maddison missed England’s training session yesterday because of his knee injury.
The issue had troubled the Leicester midfielder in the last few weeks and he limped out of his club’s final game before the World Cup.
Maddison, 25, must be a worry for England’s opening game with Iran and was the only player to miss the session, with Southgate’s staff insisting it was just a precaution.
The England boss deliberately got the players to train in the scorching hot lunchtime temperatures of 33-plus degrees.
It is to get the Three Lions players ready for the boiling conditions of Qatar, with the Iran game kicking off on Monday at 4pm local time (1pm UK time).