Ready to depart: Robin van Persie arrives with his family before departing to Holland's training camp in Lausanne

Clearly, England need to get the balance right and Fabio Capello admitted to working the players too hard in Austria before arriving in South Africa for the last  World Cup. It should also be acknowledged how tired English players often are at the end of a season that does not include a winter break.

But that has not stopped De Jong joining up and there are plenty of other examples of  players who have completed an English season then performed brilliantly at the major tournament that follows. Fernando Torres did not do a bad job for winners Spain at the last European Championship.

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