England squad abandon plans to cycle to Euros training over 'health and safety fears'

The England squad may have to abandon plans to cycle to daily training during Euro 2016 over traffic fears.

The team will be heading to France next year to compete, and Roy Hodgson was looking into alternative modes of transport after heavy traffic in Rio de Janeiro at the World Cup last year meant that it took the men 45 minutes by coach from Sao Conrado beach to their Urca military base training ground.

Recently, Hodgson found a base for his Liverpool players that allowed them to cycle to training.

Although options are available during the Euros, he has had to rule them out because of the risk of players being run over.

"That [cycling to training] was one of the things we were looking for," Hodgson told ESPN FC.

"The place we have actually found would give us that opportunity. It would involve cycling on the road for a small amount of time. For health and safety reasons, I have been told, it is not possible."

Hodgson is sworn to secrecy over the team’s location but the South of France and Paris have been mooted as options.

"We have highlighted and sent our first choice into UEFA," he said.

"It has to be ratified, of course, and we are still open in case even better comes up.

"But we have got a place we have asked UEFA to keep for us and that has been saved for us at the moment."

Last year we reported how Hodgson enlisted the help of Sir Dave Brailsford ahead of the FIFA World Cup in the hope that the national team’s players could learn from the success of Great Britain and Team Sky's cyclists.

Hodgson said at the time: “He’s prepared a team of British cyclists to win gold medals and he may be able to give the players a feel for how he’s done that.”

It wouldn’t be the first time that Brailsford, who was born in Derbyshire but grew up in North Wales, has been sought out by football managers eager to learn how he masterminded Team GB’s dominance of the track events at the past two Olympics and Sir Bradley Wiggins’ and Chris Froome’s victories for Sky in the Tour de France.

Former Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson met with him after the Beijing Olympics, and following Team GB’s success at London 2012, so too did Roberto Mancini, then manager of Manchester City, whose Etihad stadium lies across the road from the National Cycling Centre.