Declan Rice, 27, says he always wears the same black pair of trainers with his tracksuit before a game and that, "In my mind, if I don't wear them, I don't think we're gonna win."
He added that he is "proper superstitious" and that his other fixed ritual is a pre-match meal of four pancakes covered in syrup or honey — a routine he says was advised by the nutritionist for Arsenal. "Honestly, it's been a game-changer. I don't understand the science behind it, what's in them or anything like that, but it gives me such a high energy boost," Rice said.
The detail is more than a locker-room quirk because it arrives on the eve of England's first official match of the 2026 World Cup: a fixture against Croatia in Dallas on Wednesday, June 17, at 9pm UK time. Rice's combination of trainers and pancakes offers a rare, human glimpse into how a senior England player prepares when the tournament stakes are highest.
Those stakes are concrete. England have been in the United States for over two weeks preparing for the World Cup, and the memory of the 2018 semi-final defeat to Croatia still hangs over any meeting between the two sides. Around 10,000 England supporters were expected to watch the game in Dallas, and the crowd will see whether Rice keeps every pre-match element exactly as he described.
The ritual clashes quietly with the practical uncertainties inside the camp. There are four places in the starting XI still up for grabs and Thomas Tuchel is deciding his lineup right up until the hours before kick-off. The squad's final shape shifted again on Tuesday when Tino Livramento was ruled out with a calf injury and Trevoh Chalobah was called up as his replacement — a late change that reinforces how fragile selection can be even as players stick to personal routines.
Rice himself framed the routines in simple, non-technical terms: the black trainers are a talisman — "In my mind, if I don't wear them, I don't think we're gonna win" — while the pancakes are, paradoxically, something he does not fully explain. He admitted he does not "understand the science" behind the meal even as he credits it with a high energy boost. That mix of superstition and acceptance of practical advice — the pancakes came via an Arsenal nutritionist — is the small tension at the heart of his confession.
For teammates and coaches the question is not whether Rice believes the rituals work, but whether the routines help him perform. Players routinely lean on small rituals for focus; Rice's are unusually specific and public. They will be visible to supporters and to a manager weighing tactical choices: will Rice be in his black trainers when the starting XI is announced and will the pre-match meal differ if conditions change in Dallas?
The immediate answer will arrive on Wednesday night. Tuchel's final decisions, announced in the hours before kick-off, will say as much about the manager's trust in players' preparation methods as any psychologist or coach can. Meanwhile Rice's trainers and pancakes are unlikely to be the only things fans notice — but they are the clearest window yet into how one senior England player tries to tilt fortune in his side's favour ahead of a match that carries the weight of the 2018 memory.
Rice's routine has already been part of wider build-up coverage — a strand that ranged from his sunburn and a telling-off before the England World Cup kick-off to wider Arsenal debates about his form — and the links between those stories and Tuesday's squad movement will settle, briefly, with the final whistle in Dallas. Whether the sight of Rice in black trainers and the scoreline that follows will vindicate the ritual is a question the match itself will answer.
