James Milner has revealed how Fabio Capello's boot camp is breathing life into England's World Cup hopes.

England boss Capello has flown the players to Irdning, a tiny resort 2,400 feet above sea level high in the Austrian Alps to get his squad ready for South Africa.

Aston Villa midfielder Milner revealed they wear the masks for an hour every day, rotating them five minutes on and five minutes off.

The masks pump air with lower concentrations of oxygen to simulate the effects of altitude while the players can watch TV, read or run on treadmills.

It is part of Capello's painstaking attention to detail in his World Cup preparations and Milner says the training base - nearly 200 miles from the nearest Austrian city of Graz - is ideal to get the players focused.

Milner said: “We are at altitude already so training here helps and an hour a day we have a machine where we put a mask on, five minutes on, five minutes off.

“You are just sat in your room and keep it on and take it off. It is pretty boring but it has to be done and if it prepares you for the World Cup, then great. You can just about see the TV round the masks.

“It reduces the amount of oxygen going into your body and then it monitors how is in your blood and measures your heart rate as well. As the week goes on the programme changes and puts in less oxygen so your body adapts.

“To start with when you take it off, you maybe feel slightly light headed but as the weeks go on, the more you get used to it and hopefully playing at altitude will be playing like normal.

“The diet has been pretty much the same whether at club or country. There are slight differences. We have different drinks here after training but they all help you to recover and prepare as best you can.

“This affects different people in different ways. Maybe a few of the lads have found it slightly harder.

“But as long as it prepares us to be in the best possible shape mentally and physically come the first game of the World Cup, that is the idea of the exercise.”

The players involved in Saturday's FA Cup final have now joined the squad in Austria and Milner added: “Tempo has been high in training and once the whole squad is here, we can kick on. But we have had a couple of sharp sessions and we're working hard.

“It helps you prepare for what tournament football is all about, being away from home, playing games in quick succession, recovering, being together as a squad for a long time.”

World governing body FIFA insist there is no issue with altitude during the World Cup but England and several other teams are thinking differently and, with South Africa already in their winter, it is altitude rather than weather that may be an issue.

Spain and Holland are also coming to Austria along with Slovakia, Cameroon, New Zealand, South Korea and Honduras.

Seven out of the ten stadiums in South Africa range from 2,165 feet to a mile above sea level while England's base in Rustenburg is 4,920 feet.

It will take some getting used to for the players but the training pitch - a 15 minute drive from their luxury mountain golf hotel - is in perfect condition.