Tom Sorsby and the rest of the England Men’s Hockey team will begin their FIH Hockey World Cup campaign today (Saturday 15th August) in Amstelveen, the Netherlands.

England men head into the tournament, which is being held jointly by Belgium and the Netherlands, ranked third in the world behind only the two hosts of this year’s event.

On competing in the World Cup, Tom Sorsby said: “Feeling good. We've had some good prep, and we've been training well out here. The vibes are good in camp, and I think the boys are itching to get going,going really. There’s always that kind of pre-tournament feel where you're counting down the days until it begins.

“I think one of the big things is that we just want to increase the visibility of hockey, and the main way of doing that is playing well and getting good results at these tournaments. We really want to grow the game as a squad; we've got a really diverse squad, as we're pretty spread over the country. We've got a real good mixture of backgrounds; hockey is typically considered to be like a middle-class private school sport. But we've got many guys that have been through state schools, obviously, and guys that have been through private school systems as well. But we’re really geographically spread; we've got people from all over. I think we just want to do well to increase the visibility of the sport and then hopefully get some more kids involved, just growing the sport year on year, and get as many home fans down to support us when we play in England, which could be good ahead of the Euros next year as well.”

The 2026 edition of the World Cup will feature a new format after the ‘initial’ group stages, with the usual quarterfinals being replaced by a second stage of group matches called ‘crossover pools’.

England will begin their World Cup campaign in Group D alongside India, Pakistan and Wales, with their opening three matches taking place on Saturday 15th, Monday 17th and Wednesday 19th August.

On the new format of this year’s World Cup, Sorsby said: “I think it's a good format. So rather than there being a group stage and then a knockout stage, previously it would have been a group stage and then the quarterfinals, semi-finals and then the finals. Now our group of four is tied to another group of four, so we play a round robin in the initial phase. The top 2 from our group join the top 2 from the group that we're paired with, and then you play another round robin, and then two go through to the semi-finals."

“So, I guess the important thing is that it sounds quite complicated, but the important thing is that the team that you go through from your initial group into the second group, you carry that result forward. So it means that every game is super important because you want to carry those 3 points into the second hand that gives you a better chance of getting into the semi-final.”

The year’s edition will see Sorsby make his second World Cup appearance after he made his debut at the 2023 edition, in which England finished fifth.

England, who have recorded five successive top five finishes, have competed at fourteen different editions of the men’s Hockey World Cup with their best finish coming in 1986 when they finished 1986.

It’s really exciting to be at my second World Cup … the World Cup is always a special one; it’s a big one in the calendar for us, and it’s just one of those tournaments that you really get up for and look forward to playing in. You can feel it in Amsterdam right now; there’s loads of stuff around the city promoting the World Cup, and when we’ve been down training at the stadium, it’s been great, and it’s going to be a great occasion.

“We’re looking to do something as a group that hasn’t been done before for England, and that ultimately means performing well at World Cups. I think we’re taking it very much step-by-step, and we’re not looking at putting a number on something and trying to achieve a certain position. We’ve got a really, really exciting squad of talent that have lots of experience of World Cups but also some great youth coming through. So, without giving you a straight answer on ‘this is where we want to finish’ we just want to put together a performance we’re really proud of.”

England are heading into the tournament in fine form after securing second place, behind Belgium, in the 2025-26 FIH Pro League, in which they lost none of their 2026 matches.

They also head into the World Cup after remaining undefeated in the qualifiers earlier this year, in which Sorsby, who scored four goals, was named Player of the Tournament.

On their form heading into the World Cup, Sorsby said: “I think it's only a good thing for us that that’s the narrative that other people are giving. I think we're not trying to say too much about ourselves. We've, like you said, had a really good 2026. We've had some good results in the Pro League. I’d say off the back of the Euros, which were a bit disappointing for us last year, we’ve put some really strong performances together, and we've just been building, and that's kind of naturally led to us climbing up the world rankings again.”

“So, we're in a really good spot. I think we're trying not to focus too much on any external noise, as it were. And we're just kind of doing our thing and sticking to our game and sticking to our beliefs and principles, which has kind of lent us to this position. So, the group's really tight; the group is really together, and we're just looking forward to showing what we’re about.”

The World Cup will take place between 15 and 30 August with both of the gold and bronze medal matches taking place on the final day of World Cup action.

All of the home nations' matches, including England and Scotland’s women and England and Wales’ men, at the FIH Hockey World Cup will be broadcast live on the free-to-view Channel 4 Sport YouTube channel.