After playing in both of England's games in Miami last week, Jack Wilshere says he is fully prepared for their World Cup opener against Italy.
The Three Lions have been together as a group for almost three weeks, spending preparation time in Portugal, at St. George's Park and then Florida.
They finally arrived in Brazil on Sunday and enjoyed their first training session in Urca, at the foot of Rio's famous Sugarloaf Mountain on Monday.
And the Arsenal midfielder has also paid a visit to a local community Sports Complex on the outskirts of the city's largest favela, Rocinha, and says World Cup fever is beginning to take hold.
Jack Wilshere trains at Urca
Wilshere said: "We trained hard in Portugal, we trained with the extra layers, we went to Miami and stepped it up a little bit.
"Now we are feeling really good and we’ve got things in place – cooling systems in the dressing room which is going to help us and we’re fully prepared."
"The World Cup is just around the corner, you can tell that and it will be nice when it gets started."
The tournament gets under way on Thursday, but Wilshere and his England team-mates will have to wait two days longer until their meeting with the Italians in Manaus.
It was at the hands of the same opposition that Roy Hodgson's men were knocked out of the European Championship in 2012.
That game in Kiev finished 0-0, but the Azzurri came through to win the game on penalties, inspired by their veteran captain Andrea Pirlo.
Jack Wilshere cools off against Ecuador
"He is a great player. He is like Stevie G on our team," added the 22-year-old.
"He is the anchor, he picks the ball up, he’s a playmaker, he gets the play started and we saw that a couple of years ago in the Euros, he was great in that game.
"We know that he is getting on but we know that he has quality.
"Italy are a good team. It’s pretty even, it’s going to be tough in Manaus but we’ve got great individuals who can win us the game."
Another player who England will have to look out for is Mario Balotelli, the former Manchester City striker who netted the first shootout spot-kick in Ukraine.
The 23-year-old striker has netted 12 times in 31 appearances for the Italians and Wilshere is well aware of the threat he poses, but believes England can counter it.
Jack Wilshere in action in Miami
"First and foremost, we have to worry about him as a player," said the former Under-21s starlet. "He is a great player. We have seen that in the past.
"We have got players who have played with him, Joe Hart, James Milner and defenders who have played against him in the Premier League. I don’t think that will be a problem."
Wilshere has played only two games for Arsenal since the start of March due to a foot injury - once in the Premier League and once in The FA Cup Final - but has since figured in all three recent England games, starting against Ecuador at Sun Life Stadium. And he says he's getting fitter all the time.
"This is the biggest competition in the world. I feel good. It was nice to get that first game out the way," he revealed.
"I played 84 minutes, which was nice, and I got 45 minutes the other day so I feel I am getting stronger and stronger every day."
