How Italia 90 Planted the Seeds of England’s Modern Sports Science
Long before GPS vests and hyperbaric recovery chambers became standard issue for England squads heading to major tournaments, a sports scientist arrived at Lilleshall with a BBC microcomputer, a dot-matrix printer, and a handful of heart-rate monitors. According to The Guardian, that man was Prof John Brewer — the Football Association’s first-ever head of human performance — and his work with Bobby Robson’s side at Italia 90 represents a quiet turning point in English football.
Brewer ran bleep tests on the squad three times: once before departure, once on arrival in Italy, and again after a fortnight of training in the midday heat. The data allowed him to demonstrate to sceptical players that they had genuinely adapted to the conditions and could sustain their usual high-tempo style of play.
Not everything went smoothly. Brewer had persuaded Robson that the players needed carbohydrate-heavy meals in the build-up to matches, only to watch the team chef wheel out a trolley of swordfish steaks before their opening game against Ireland. The England doctor reportedly pushed back, insisting on giving players what they wanted rather than what the emerging sports science recommended.
On the subject of alcohol, Robson imposed a ban from two weeks before the tournament, though he did allow the occasional drink. Brewer notes, without naming names, that a couple of players went considerably further than permitted.
Perhaps the most striking revelation concerns Paul Gascoigne. Brewer recalls that Gazza reported to Lilleshall in exceptional shape, recording a body-fat percentage that compared favourably with the rest of the squad. “I think he probably was the fittest he was in his career,” Brewer told The Guardian. He also describes holding regular one-to-one conversations with Gascoigne, who despite his reputation as the squad joker was, in Brewer’s words, “fully professional — football was everything to him.”
Brewer’s other contributions now read like common sense: getting players to warm up without the ball to raise body temperature, encouraging substitutes to stretch throughout matches rather than sit idle, and simply handing out electrolyte drinks on the bus home from training — something England players had not been doing at all.
With England now preparing for World Cup 2026 with vastly more sophisticated recovery tools at their disposal, it is worth remembering just how recently the foundations were laid. You can follow all the latest scores and live standings as the tournament unfolds.
For UK bettors, this historical context is a useful reminder that England’s current physical preparation exists on the shoulders of innovators like Brewer — even if the swordfish problem has, presumably, been sorted.