England have been piling on the layers in the Algarve to make sure they are ready for the sweltering heat which awaits them in Manaus next month.

When Roy Hodgson picked the luxurious golf resort of Vale do Lobo for a pre-World Cup training camp, he probably had visions of his squad being put through their paces under the baking sun, but that has not been the case so far this week.

Temperatures in the south-Portuguese resort have barely been over 15 degrees centigrade and a powerful cold wind blasted through the squad’s first and only opening training session at their base on Wednesday.

To up their body temperatures and sweat rates, Hodgson had the players wearing three layers during the hour-long session.

In addition, Dave Reddin, Hodgson’s head of performance services, recommended the players to wear special pads underneath their tracksuit tops.

That way, England’s medical staff, and three sports scientists who have been brought to Portugal from Loughborough University, can assess how the national squad responded to sweating buckets – as they will do in the jungle on June 14 when they face Italy.

Humidity levels can reach over 80 per cent in Manaus, so Hodgson wants to do everything he can to help his players reach peak condition ahead of the Group D opener.

It is a far cry from his previous experience at a World Cup when he just bunged his Switzerland players inside a sauna for a while prior to USA 1994.

“Compare that to what we are doing now and it was an unbelievably amateurish performance,” the 66-year-old said.

Interestingly, the Italian squad have been doing fitness sessions in saunas at their base in Coverciano, Florence.

Back in Portugal everything is going to plan for Hodgson’s 23-man squad, apart from the weather.

Dr Steve Peters, the acclaimed psychiatrist who will be with England all summer, gave an introductory speech on Tuesday night at their hotel.