George Williams column: England ready with less than month until Australia series

In his BBC Sport column, England captain George Williams talks about his recovery from injury and the growing anticipation of finally facing a touring Australia side on home soil.

It is less than a month until England run out at Wembley to face Australia in the Ashes series since 2003, and I’m so glad it’s nearly upon us.

We’ve been waiting that long now. It’s been in the pipeline for a long time so it’s exciting.

Everyone’s the same: The fans, the players, the coaches, the media.

We’ve had chances as a team to get together. We’ve had two meet-ups in the past five weeks, so we’ve been among each other a fair bit.

We’ve got the two sold-out stadiums in Everton and Leeds, and Wembley as well. These are the games we’ve been waiting for. It’s been 20-odd years since we had a proper Ashes tour.

Shaun Wane has got us prepared and ready and we know what’s needed in this country for the game to grow and for us to win the series.

Shaun can be really serious but he has a good balance of having a laugh. Chris Barron, or Bubble as he’s known, adds to that – he’s the head of strength and conditioning but also the team joker.

He does the quizzes for the lads in the evening, and he’ll dress up in daft gear.

Bubble’s great for the team and I’m sure he’ll have something up his sleeve for us.