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Raheem Sterling cools off his England team-mates with a sprinkler

  /  autty

Jesse Lingard might be regarded as the joker in England's squad, but it was Raheem Sterling's turn to keep his team-mates laughing as they continued their preparations for Belgium on Tuesday.

The Manchester City man, fresh from providing the assist for Lingard's stunning strike against Panama on Sunday, was on hand to help the some of Gareth Southgate's squad cool off in the heat of Zelenogorsk.

After a pitchside sprinkler went off and soaked the likes of Marcus Rashford and Danny Welbeck, Sterling opted to take matters into his own hands and drench a few more of his pals.

Turning the sprinkler with both hands, the 23-year-old directed the water jet in the direction of Jordan Henderson, Eric Dier and Co, forcing them to sprint along the touchline of one of Spartak Zelenogorsk's training pitches.

Spirits are high in the England camp following Sunday's superb 6-1 victory over Panama, a result which ensured the Three Lions are already into the last 16 of the World Cup ahead of Thursday's game with Belgium.

Ashley Young and Dele Alli were among those pictured laughing at Sterling's practical joke, which may not have been completely unwelcome with the temperature hitting 21 degrees in the town just outside of St Petersburg.

Although there was time for some fun, Southgate's squad still got down to the business of preparing for the Group G decider in Kaliningrad as they look to finish in top spot.

Victory on Thursday evening will be enough to ensure England finish as group winners, while a draw would also suffice if they finish with a better disciplinary record than Roberto Martinez's side.

Alli was again pictured training with the main group as he continues his recovery from the thigh injury which kept him out of Sunday's thrashing in Nizhny Novgorod.

Meanwhile, goalkeeper Jordan Pickford has insisted that England are focused on beating Belgium despite suggestions that finishing second in the group may lead to an easier quarter-final tie.

'Our mentality is to win every game we play - and we want to win every game,' he said.

'I feel that if we win every game it just keeps building momentum to keep going in the tournament.

'We know Belgium are a tough opponent and we need to be on our A-game to get the win and I feel our squad, in the camp, we want to win every game so we can't be looking into that.'