The Warm-Up: Danny Rose opens up and Belgium send a message

No question which the story of the day is – and no jokes from The Warm-Up, for once. For Danny Rose deserves huge credit for opening up about his battle with depression on the eve of the World Cup.

This was perhaps not what the England media team expected when they put on a Super Bowl-style interview day at St George’s Park earlier in the week, but how refreshing to hear a top footballer really lay it on the line with no airbrushing and no stock answers.

“It’s no secret that I’ve been through a testing time at Tottenham this season,” said the left-back. “It led to me seeing a psychologist and I was diagnosed with depression, which nobody knows about. I had to get away from Tottenham.

“I’m lucky that England gave me that opportunity to get away, refresh my mind and I’ll always be grateful to them. I was on medication for a few months – nobody knows about that apart from my agent – but I’m off the medication now, I’m good again and looking forward to how far we can go in Russia.”

There was plenty more where that came from, including revelations of family tragedy and details of the mental challenges of dealing with injuries. But you’d be best just to go and read them in their entirety rather than sit through a retelling here.

When you’re done, hopefully you’ll be left with the same image The Warm-Up has of Rose: of a thoughtful, brave young man willing to tackle subjects that many are not. Well done to him.

Pre-World-Cup friendlies are there for two things: avoiding injury (very much the top priority) and “sending a message” to your group opponents. Belgium haven’t been very good at the first over the last few days – hi, Vincent! – but made a better fist of the second last night, cruising to a 3-0 win over Egypt.

Yes, obviously the Pharaohs were without Mo Salah, but this was still impressive stuff from Roberto Martinez’s men, who took control through first-half goals from Romelu Lukaku and Eden Hazard. Future Arsenal legend Marouane Fellaini added a third late on.

(Sending the wrong kind of message: Panama, who lost 1-0 to Norway.)

To the slightly undercooked world of transfers now, and news that Manchester United have completed their second signing of the summer. This one’s a little more SEO-friendly than Fred, too: it’s young Portuguese right-back Diogo Dalot, who has signed a five-year deal after arriving from Porto.

“I’m excited about working with Jose Mourinho and learning everything I can from such a successful coach,” said the 19-year-old. “I am looking forward to playing alongside the fantastic players in the squad.”

He might want to hold that thought while he looks at how some of United’s other full-backs have got on under Mourinho. Not just Luke Shaw, but also Matteo Darmian, Daley Blind… basically, if you’re not a former winger with all the joy sucked out, chances are you’re not getting in that starting XI.

Undoubtedly the best transfer rumour of this or indeed any summer: Peter Crouch to Parma. And that combination of four words is just so perfect that we’ll just go ahead and type them again: Peter. Crouch. To. Parma.

Yes, it’s a line from Calcio Mercato, so is probably about as credible as a budget statistic printed on the side of a bus. But ignore that and just… dream. Crouchy tearing it up in Serie A. Crouchy heading into town for an apero. Crouchy on a moped. Crouchy eventually taking Italian citizenship. Crouchy, two decades from now, revealing that he was Elena Ferrante all along.

Make this happen, world.

On this day in 1970: Gordon Banks channels his inner alley cat to deny Pele, but England fall to a Jairzinho goal at the World Cup in Mexico:

And that day was a great one for Brazilian football for another reason, too: Cafu was born. Here’s a neat little feature on the winger-turned-full-back, who played in three consecutive World Cup finals and so memorably lifted the trophy in 2002, screaming a message to his wife (“I LOVE YOU REGINA!”) on top of that wobbly plinth in Yokohama:

“He was like a little boy,” says Paul McGuinness, the former United youth team coach who now works for the English Football Association as its National Coach Developer. “But mentally he was ahead of most of the bigger boys. He was quicker, sharper, a good learner, brighter. Just like he is now, bright as a button, always having a laugh. His personality helped to get him through, be resilient enough. If he was getting knocked down, he was always getting back up again.”

That’s John Brewin, elsewhere on these pages, with a fascinating look at Jesse Lingard’s development from tiny little scrapper to England star.

Also worth a look is the ESPN/Marvel World Cup comic mash-up:

One for the nostalgia fans at Elland Road (Elland Road!) this evening: it’s England vs Costa Rica, a fixture that went so, so well for the Three Lions four years ago in Brazil. The Warm-Up still occasionally wakes up in the middle of the night, drenched in sweat, after nightmares about Ross Barkley, Daniel Sturridge and Jack Wilshere toiling away in the Belo Horizonte sunshine, destined never to score a goal or even come close.

Elsewhere in Friendlyville: South Korea vs Bolivia, Portugal vs Algeria and Iceland vs Ghana. It’s like an episode of Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?.