With the England squad due to fly out of their Korean base on the island of Jeju on Saturday afternoon, Grip and Sexton will leave separately and head to Tokyo to be there for Saturday night's match between England's group rivals Sweden and World Cup hosts Japan. They will then re-join the rest of the squad in Awaji where England will be based for the rest of the tournament.

If anyone is well placed to give England the inside track on our first group opponents on June 2, it must be Grip, who was the Swedish assistant manager for six years between 1991-1997. But he is still looking forward to taking one final look at them.

"Yes, hopefully we will know almost all there is to know about Sweden by the time we play them, which is good," Grip told TheFA.com before he leaving the Paradise Hotel in Korea.

"Sven and I have known both their national coaches (Tommy Soderberg and Lars Lagerback) for many years. In fact, they were our scouts for the World Cup in 1994."

Let's hope that Sven and Tord remain the sorcerers to their former apprentices when they meet in Saitama on June 2.