TAKING sleeping pills would have had little effect on England’s performance in their World Cup qualifier in Poland, a leading medical expert has said.

It has been reported that players took tablets to aid sleep the night before Wednesday’s delayed match in Warsaw, which ended 1-1 after a disappointing performance by Roy Hodgson’s side.

It has also been suggested players took caffeine tablets before the game, which had been postponed from Tuesday due to heavy rain.

The Football Association has declined to comment on the reports but Dr Peter Brukner, the former head of sports science at Liverpool, does not think it would be a major issue.

The sports physician said: “I know the media want to make a big deal of it because England didn’t play well, but I don’t think there is a lot in it.

Someone has got on to it and put two and two together.

‘‘It boils down to a situation where for some reason or another a player thinks he might be unable to sleep, so you weigh up the merits of having sleeping pills to get some sleep versus the obvious negatives of having sleeping tablets.

‘‘In most cases the decision would be they don’t take a sleeping tablet, but in certain cases they do.

‘‘A usual scenario is you play a night game and you might be all hyped up, but it doesn’t matter if you don’t have a good night’s sleep because you’ve got a few days to recover.

‘‘But in this situation they got hyped up and then had to play the following day.

‘‘I guess there were concerns from some players that they were going to have trouble sleeping.

‘‘In the old days when people were taking valium, that would leave you ‘hungover’ for the next day – you’d be a bit slow.

‘‘But nowadays the newer sleeping tablets are much shorter-acting. They are out of your system a lot quicker.

‘‘They don’t give you as long a sleep but they are out of your system in four or five hours.”