We all enjoy a good nightclub story

Gareth Southgate13 April 2012

It's been great to have the families with us in Dubai for the last few days. For me, the trip has been an outstanding success and full credit to the Football Association for making everything run so smoothly.

Tomorrow though, we must say our goodbyes at the airport. The families are due to return home to England while, an hour later, we go on to South Korea where the World Cup preparation starts to move up a gear or two.

We have a game against South Korea on Tuesday but our first Group F match against Sweden will still be almost two weeks away.

Obviously the interest back home is intensifying all the time but there's no point in us getting stressed now or we will be absolutely exhausted by the time the tournament starts in earnest.

The one big advantage of coming out to Dubai for a few days is to acclimatise to the sort of conditions we can expect in South Korea and then Japan.

Sven has advised the squad to be sensible in the heat and not have too much sun but he needn't have worried because it has been so hot here that it's impossible to spend much time away from the shade anyway.

We've trained in the heat over the last couple of days and yesterday we worked pretty hard.

We were weighed before and after the sessions to see just how much weight we had lost. I lost a couple of pounds but it's not so bad in training because we can stop for water breaks.

In a match it's more difficult and we've been advised we could lose upwards of five pounds in weight during a 90-minute match.

The experts say the conditions in South Korea, where we go next, are very similar to that in Dubai while, in Japan, the temperature is not as high but there is more humidity.

I think everyone has relaxed and enjoyed the last few days. The first night we all attended a barbecue and that was really enjoyable. It gave us the chance to get to know people that we had never been able to spend much time with.

The backroom staff also had their wives and girlfriends with them and once again it was good to chat to them and give them an opportunity to meet us.

Sven has told everyone to relax but to be sensible. I have tended to spend all my free time around the hotel with my wife and daughter but some of the single lads have been out to a restaurant or a club.

We have been receiving the newspapers a day late out here so we were interested to see the pictures of a few of the lads on their way back to the hotel in the early hours.

It was much ado about nothing really but, let's face it, an England World Cup warm-up wouldn't be complete without a nightclub story, would it?

The wives and girlfriends also featured in a couple of papers but it was harmless enough and we all had a good laugh.

I didn't know Kieron Dyer was flying out to join us until I read it in a newspaper.

I obviously don't know how he's progressing but we'll certainly keep our fingers crossed for him. Kieron has had his fair share of injuries but he's a fine player if fit.

If he does make it then Trevor Sinclair would probably miss out but the way things have been going recently, I would think that Sven would want to keep as many players out here right up until the deadline for picking his final squad.

It will be tough on him but I have congratulated him at different times over the last few days and the first thing he said was just how choked he was for the players who missed out.

We certainly have been treated royally here in Dubai. Nothing is too much trouble for the staff and the service has been superb.

Some of the lads have been out shopping but it's more difficult when you have children in this heat so we've stayed in the hotel.

We managed to watch the Champions League Final on Wednesday night even though we are three hours ahead out here.

Obviously the main talking point the following morning was Zinedine Zidane's winning goal for Real Madrid but I didn't see anyone trying to emulate him in training later on, not in training shoes anyway.

The main thing is there have been no more injuries, no mishaps. The players coming back from injury have been doing their work with the physios away from the main group and they seem to be making steady progress.

I see that South Korea, who we meet next Tuesday, beat Scotland 4-1 but, in the Scots' defence, they didn't have much time to acclimatise to what are obviously very different conditions.

For now though, our time with the families is almost at an end. My view is that this small break has been a great success but tomorrow we'll go our separate ways.

Sven is keen to keep things fairly low key for the moment but the nearer we get to 2 June and Sweden, the more focused we must be.

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