Less than a year ago, the Southampton midfielder was still waiting for his first England senior cap and was planning for his wedding, scheduled on the same date as the Three Lions’ opening match against Italy in Manaus.
Uruguay v England
FIFA 2014 World Cup
Group D
8pm BST, Thursday 19 June
Arena da Sao Paulo, Brazil
Live on ITV
But his performances with the Saints in the early part of last season caught Roy Hodgson’s eye and Lallana collected his first cap after World Cup qualification had already been secured, starting the match with Chile at Wembley last November.
The 26-year-old duly re-arranged his wedding plans for the following month of December and quickly became one of Hodgson’s squad regulars as focus on the trip to Brazil intensified.
And Lallana admits he had no hesitation in changing his marital plans, knowing that there was any sort of chance he could secure a place on the plane to South America.
"People have asked me this question a few times, but when I did pencil in the wedding date it was more or less a couple of years ago and not in my wildest dreams would have thought I would have had a World Cup to attend to," said Lallana.
Lallana has been enjoying the World Cup experience so far
"So I can be forgiven for having to cancel it when I did. But that is part of life – sometimes things happen and sometimes you have to make decisions.
"It was in the November internationals when we played Chile and Germany and I had a couple of mates saying to me: 'listen, you’ve got a real chance of being involved in the World Cup'.
"Then I just wanted to do the sensible thing, but I didn’t want people thinking: 'he’s sure he is on the plane'.
"I just did what was right for me, my wife and my family and that was to bring the wedding forward.
"It was far less stress for us and we were really happy with that."
Despite a 2-1 defeat by Italy in England’s first game of the competition at the weekend, during which Lallana made a second-half substitute appearance, he has been enjoying the whole World Cup experience otherwise.
Lallana visited a Rio favela with England team-mates last week
And as the squad leave their Rio base for Sao Paulo on Wednesday, thoughts of facing Uruguay and an increasingly important match are now coming to the fore.
"The next thing is to win on Thursday," he added.
"It's massive for us, we are completely focused on Uruguay and Uruguay only. We know what we have to do and it is a big pressure game, as people say, but I am sure that all of the lads will thrive off it.
"There were signs the other night that we're close and the lads know that it's all-or-nothing really.
"There is an air of confidence around us. We were disappointed with the result the other night and we know what the job is on Thursday and it is quite simple really – it is to win.
"We have to go all-out, but we know we need the win and we're confident."
