Ireland face the world’s number one side in Australia in their opening match of the Hockey World Cup but their first task is to acclimatise to the conditions in India.
Alexander Cox’s squad depart for Bhubaneswar today, where the average temperature at this time of year is about 29C.
They’ll take on the Aussies on 30 November before clashes with China (4 Dec) and England (7 Dec) and the goal is simple: get out of Pool B, and go from there.
As long as they don’t finish in last place they’ll get a shot at progressing, either automatically or via a play-off.
Before all that the challenge is to stay healthy.
"There’s going to be a few issues, obviously jet lag will be one," midfielder Daragh Walsh tells RTÉ Sport.
"We have four or five days until our first game so it’s not a huge amount of time to try and get used to it but it should be enough.
"India brings its own challenge in terms of sickness.
The #GreenMachine leave for Bhubaneswar this morning with thanks to @TurkishAirlines! Keep an eye on our social media next week for player profiles and great prizes #HWC2018 pic.twitter.com/0lZs91ysg6
— Irish Hockey (@irishhockey) November 24, 2018
"We’ve been very careful with pro-biotics in the lead up and then we’re going to be very careful with our hygiene over there to make sure we don’t get sick.
"There was a tournament a couple of years ago where the German team had seven players who got sick and their goalkeeper had to play outfield. We’re going to have to be aware of that."
Whether they like it or not, the exploits of the women’s team, who reached the World Cup final in August, means there will be more attention on the side. Does that add any extra pressure?
"It does and it doesn’t," says the Three Rock Rovers man.
"We’re concentrating on ourselves but it does bring an element of that, that they’ve done so well and it’s going to be in the back of our minds that we want to do that as well but we’re just going to take one game at a time.
"More than anything it just fills us with belief that we can go out there and upset the bigger teams.
"I think they were second lowest ranked and we’re probably fourth or fifth lowest. It shows that a lower ranked team can go almost all the way."
