Dutch team swaps ice baths for Turkish sauna to beat US heat

Dutch national team will replace ice‑bath recovery with Turkish sauna sessions as part of heat‑acclimatisation for the World Cup in the United States, team doctor Edwin Goedhart explained.

The squad will leave the Netherlands after a training camp in Zeist, spend a few days in New York and then set up its base camp in Kansas City, where they will train on the pitches of Kansas City Current.

Goedhart said the principal difficulty is not the temperature alone but the high humidity that can impair performance; he stressed that players need to train in warm but not overly humid conditions to maintain mileage.

The group matches in Dallas and Houston will be played in air‑conditioned stadiums, keeping on‑field temperatures around 23‑24 °C, whereas the Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City lacks a roof and climate control, so humidity could remain high for the match against Tunisia.

Because players need roughly two weeks to acclimatise, the Dutch side will have spent more than two and a half weeks in Kansas City before the third group game, giving the body time to adjust to the local climate.

The medical team accompanying the squad consists of two doctors, five physiotherapists, two masseurs and a sports dietitian, supported by external specialists in thermopsychology, biorhythm and nutrition; a cooling bag is also available on the sidelines.

Goedhart concluded that while the cooling bag may not be needed, the team will continue to monitor temperature and humidity data to fine‑tune training and match‑day strategies.