Sir Dave, who has overseen an incredible period of success in British cycling, will visit the squad to speak to the players ahead of England's friendly at Wembley against Peru on May 30 - the final match before they fly out to their pre-tournament base in Miami.

Hodgson is hoping that Sir Dave will inspire the England players, particularly in terms of preparing themselves mentally for the tournament, and pass on his words of wisdom to a squad that contains a number of players who have generally been considered as underachievers at recent major tournaments.

Since his appointment as performance director at British Cycling in 2002, Sir Dave has guided Britain to 30 Olympic medals at Athens 2004, Beijing 2008 and London 2012 - including 18 golds - 49 Paralympic medals and more than 100 World Championship medals, almost half of which have been gold.

He has also masterminded British success on the road with Tour de France wins for Team Sky's Sir Bradley Wiggins in 2012 and Chris Froome last year.

Sir Dave Brailsford has overseen British Tour de France success as the team principal at Team Sky, including Chris Froome last year ©Getty Images



"Dave Brailsford will come and speak to us, which we are looking forward to," said Hodgson, who is also believed to be seeking the assistance of double Olympic champion and London 2012 chief Sebastian Coe.

"He has made a commitment he's going to come and speak to us in that period of time that we have before we play Peru.

"He will basically talk to us about his experience and how he has found it preparing a team of the British cyclists' quality to win gold medals and to give the players a bit of a feel maybe as well that this is a fantastic occasion.

"One forgets sometimes how important these tournaments are and what big occasions they are, you don't get that many shots at it and you have a lot of time to regret if you don't give it your best shot.

"I bet the world is full of players who reflect back on tournaments they have had and have said 'I wish had done a bit more, I wish I had concentrated a bit more, I wish I had known then what I know now'.

"Maybe Brailsford can put a few thoughts in their head."

Ashley Young misses his spot-kick during yet another England penalty shoot-out defeat against Italy at Euro 2012 ©AFP/Getty Images



Hodgson is also reportedly set to recruit former Rugby World Cup winning coach Dave Reddin to his backroom team for the World Cup, which will see England taking on Italy, Uruguay and Costa Rica in Group D.

Reddin was a key member of Sir Clive Woodward's backroom team when England claimed the Webb Ellis Cup in 2003 and is an expert in sports psychology.

He was recently appointed as the Football Association's new head of performance services, and his role in Brazil is expected to mainly focus on preparing players for the mental strain of possible penalty shoot-outs.

Since the shoot-out defeat to West Germany in the semi-final of Italia 1990, England have lost six out of seven shoot-outs in major tournaments, with the only success coming against Spain in the Euro 1996 quarter-final.

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