Hodgson admits he could make changes for Uruguay

The Three Lions face Uruguay in Sao Paulo in their second Group D outing knowing that they need to win if progress to the knock-out stages is going to be likely.

And despite finding plenty of positives from England’s performance against Italy in their opening match, Hodgson is prepared to make changes to his line-up.

"I think that is a good question, we will have to assess what it has taken out of the players,” admitted the England boss.

"There might be one or two of them that have taken a slight knock but we have got the squad and luckily there is no further injuries, apart from [Alex] Oxlade-Chamberlain, so I have the opportunity to make changes. 

"I would like to look back at the game closely, because you always get caught up in the emotions, and there are always things you see things on the second run through.

"We will show them [the squad] some of the things in the game that were very good and we will address some of the issues we think need to be addressed.

"But in my time with the national team, it's as positive a performance in many ways as I have seen from us.

"It gives me great hope going forward, not just for the next two games, but further than that because we have players here who will develop into very strong players."

Hodgson and assistant coach Ray Lewington are studying Uruguay's previous game

Uruguay will also be looking at Thursday’s match with a similar attitude, after losing their first game against Costa Rica on Saturday.

Hodgson has since watched and analysed that match back and has some early thoughts on how the Three Lions can best approach it.

And that involves some of the attacking instinct that was seen in flashes against the Italians, along with a more clinical touch in front of goal.

"I saw a bit of the Uruguay game, we have got to ally the pace with scoring goals," he added. 

"I thought our pace, allied with our clever play, got us into lots of goal-scoring opportunities.

"I think we have got to be a bit more ruthless. Had we scored two or three goals [against Italy], I don't think anybody could say “you were lucky there, you didn't create many chances”.

"I thought the best way to go was to unleash some of our pacy players and put them on the back foot and I think we did for a lot of the time."

England will begin their preparations on Monday when they return to training at their Urca base in Rio de Janeiro.