World Cup: Adam Lallana turns up early for work hoping to impress England boss Gareth Southgate

Ahead of tomorrow’s penultimate warm-up friendly, against Nigeria at Wembley, manager Gareth Southgate’s men have travelled south from their St George’s Park training base. Lallana was among the players that met up at The Grove on Wednesday evening and trained with England for the first time at Arsenal’s complex yesterday.

Liverpool’s players have been given a week off following last Saturday’s Champions League final defeat to Real Madrid, but the 30-year-old decided to come back early as he tries to sharpen up.

Lallana has endured an injury-hit campaign that has restricted him to just one Premier League start, leading Southgate to leave the attacking midfielder out of his World Cup squad.

But England’s player of the year in 2016 is on the standby list and, after playing an hour from the bench in Kiev, is looking to impress Southgate in case there is a withdrawal from the 23.

Lallana joined fellow standby players Jake Livermore and Tom Heaton at training, along with Nathaniel Chalobah, as the midfielder continues his rehabilitation from a serious knee injury. James Tarkowski had to pull out of the standby list in order to undergo a hernia operation, while Lewis Cook is with England Under-21s at the Toulon Tournament.

Lallana’s Liverpool team-mates Jordan Henderson and Trent Alexander-Arnold are set to meet up with Southgate’s squad this weekend.

England will face Costa Rica at Elland Road next Thursday in their final competitive friendly before jetting out to Russia on June 12.

The Three Lions open their Group G fixtures against Tunisia on Monday, June 18 in Volgograd (7pm).

They will next take on Panama in Nizhny Novgorod on Sunday, June 24 (1pm).

Their final match is against Belgium on Thursday, June 28 in Kaliningrad (7pm).