ENGLAND stars will be without their Wags for this summer’s World Cup in Russia, according to reports.
The Daily Mail reports the glamorous wives and girlfriends of Gareth Southgate’s squad are preparing to snub the tournament amid security fears.
FA president Prince William is boycotting the tournament after Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson urged UK citizens to steer clear following Russia’s suspected assassination of former spy Sergei Skripal.
The FA will go ahead in sending officials.
But some of the team’s Wags, who traditionally stay close to the England camp at tournaments, are not willing to risk a potential month in Russia.
It is claimed that those who do decide to stay and lend their support are planning to base themselves nearly 30 miles away from the Three Lions’ Repino team hotel in St Petersburg.
Southgate is placing his players in the boring, deserted town where they will have precious little to do.
But he is happy for them to be visited by their other halves at select times.
He said: “I don’t think there has ever been a tournament where the whole family has been in with us the whole time. But will I encourage families to come and the lads to see them the day after a game, absolutely I will.
“For some, that will be really important. Sadly for my family, not so much. I’m there and I’m focused and I don’t want to be distracted.”
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Wags stole the limelight from Sven-Goran Eriksson’s Three Lions in Baden-Baden at the World Cup in Germany in 2006.
Italian Fabio Capello clamped down on partners during his era as England boss but Southgate has taken a different view.
He said: “We want an environment where players are relaxed. It becomes a bubble where there’s nothing else in your life and small things become much bigger than they should be and there’s nothing else to talk about.
“You’re not hearing anything else, you’re just talking about the tournament and then training. If they can get out of the hotel at certain times then great, but that’s not always easy.”
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