Chelsea's Belgian international forward Romelu Lukaku has said that England's players had to deal with a lot of pressure and looked "scared" in the build-up to the World Cup.

The Three Lions exited the tournament after Costa Rica registered a shock win over Italy, hours after Roy Hodgson's men were beaten 2-1 by Uruguay.

However, Lukaku insists that English players needn't be stressed by the occasion, due to the level of young talent emerging for the national side.

He told reporters: "There is a lot of pressure on the England players. At the end of the season you saw in the newspapers the pressure about the World Cup. People were talking more about the World Cup than the end of the season in the Premier League, which was really intense.

"There was maybe a lot of pressure on the players and you could see sometimes they were a bit scared as they didn't play with their normal habits.

"But you don't have to stress, England has a lot of potential, a lot of young players who will become world-class players, and there are experienced players that can always bring something into the team."

Lukaku could feature for Belgium in their second World Cup game against Russia on Sunday afternoon.

Written by
Chris O'Keefe