WITH the England Squad now in Germany, Gareth Southgate and his men will have their sights firmly set on Sunday’s clash with Serbia — and their phone screens.
Eagle-eyed football fans have spotted today that Southgate, the England team and even backroom staff are sporting Oura Rings— smart rings that link to an app and track sleep quality, heart rate, blood oxygen levels and almost every other fitness metric you can think of.
Players including Chelsea midfielder Conor Gallagher and Crystal Palace defender Marc Guéhi have been spotted wearing the ring, alongside Southgate himself.
Guéhi’s defensive partner John Stones is also a fan of the ring, having previously said in an interview with Face Magazine: “The first thing I do once I’m out of bed is check my Oura Ring to see how I’ve slept – it’s addictive.”
It’s believed that the FA splashed out around £12,000 to equip the team with the gadgets, and that checks out; the rings cost between £299 and £549, and that doesn’t even include the monthly £5.99 membership you have to pay to use it to its full potential.
However, three of Sun Shopping’s team tested the gadget out for our Oura Ring review, and they agreed that it was an excellent product, awarding it a score of 4/5.
They specifically loved how lightweight and unobtrusive it is, which makes it far better for sleep tracking than alternatives such as the Apple Watch (which two of our reviewers were using to track their sleep before getting their hands on the Oura Ring).
They also loved its precise step counter, stylish design and ability to be used in conjunction with the fertility tracking app Natural Cycles as a method of hormone-free birth control.
And with six days of battery life, it’s not hard to find time to charge it.
The England team are not the first athletes to turn to Oura for fitness analytics.
In 2022, the company partnered with Champions League winners Real Madrid to supply rings to its entire professional team.
At the time, Real Madrid’s head of medical education, Dr. Suzanne Huurman said in a statement: “The Oura Ring allows us to see how our players respond to training, travelling, or for instance, stress and, as a result, their recovery trend.”
In 2020, The NBA purchased 2,000 Oura Rings in an attempt to detect early signs of coronavirus.
The ring is also a popular product among health-conscious A-listers.
Prince Harry has been pictured wearing his multiple times, though he prefers to wear his on his fourth finger rather than the recommended index finger.
Reality royals are also fans — Kim Kardashian has previously been seen wearing an Oura Ring, and went as far as to mention the company in her Instagram story (an advertisement that other brands pay massive amounts of money for).
In her post, she wrote: “Anyone else wear an @OuraRing to bed? You become obsessed with checking your sleep habits!”
Other celebrity devotees include Gwyneth Paltrow and Jennifer Aniston, who admitted during an interview that she was “obsessed with the Oura Ring”.