Tottenham’s Eric Dier ready to go the distance to make England’s Euro 2016 squad

Festive spirit: Spurs stars says he's better equipped to deal with the heavy workload
Simon Johnson3 December 2015

Tottenham midfielder Eric Dier believes he is better equipped to cope without a winter break this term.

Dier joined Spurs from Sporting Lisbon for £4million in 2014 but faded as the fixture list took its toll last season.

The 21-year-old had spent the previous two campaigns playing in Portugal with a mid-season break of two weeks.

Now Dier feels he has the stamina to cope with Tottenham’s intense fixture list and said: “I had not played without a winter break until last season. The games come thick and fast and I struggled to cope with it.

“It was the main struggle for me last year, but I have learned from that experience. Hopefully, I can maintain my form going into Christmas now.”

Dier says he has been inspired by team-mate Harry Kane as he tries to become a mainstay in the England team.

He impressed on his first start for Roy Hodgson’s side as a defensive midfielder in last month’s 2-0 win over France.

Kane made the breakthrough last term and is a certainty to make the Euro 2016 squad.

Dier added: “I have known Harry a long time and we have played in lots of England age groups together and now for Tottenham.

Tottenham vs Chelsea - player ratings

1/24

“To see someone make a path all the way through to the senior England team, you look at it and know you can follow in their footsteps and go the same way. It gives you a bit of extra confidence that if someone else can do it, you can do it, too.

“It was great for Harry last season, he had an unbelievable season and, hopefully, he can continue to do that and we can play a lot together for Tottenham and England, too.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

MORE ABOUT