Following England‘s historic triumph over Mexico at the Estadio Azteca, the Piers Morgan World Cup Uncensored show mocked several journalists and YouTubers running around the stadiumto test the altitude effects before the match.
World Cup Uncensored is a football analysis spin-off series hosted by Piers Morgan on YouTube, which features regular debates with former Crystal Palace chairman Simon Jordan and former England captain and Chelsea legend John Terry.
During the match analysis section after talking about England’s great win, Piers showed the clips of the journalists who ran around the stadium to check if the England players would have any impact with the city’s punishing 2,240m (7,220 ft) elevation ahead of the World Cup match.
The clip featured several prominent media figures detailing their firsthand experiences after running around the Estadio Azteca.
The Chief Football Writer for ‘The Independent’, Miguel Delaney, was among those who laced up his trainers to test the altitude and conditions of the stadium.
In that footage, he is seen visibly struggling to breathe as he ran around the stadium. Delaney’s fitness test vividly illustrated the basic science of how reduced barometric pressure limits oxygen uptake, showing how rapidly an individual fatigues when trying to maintain a normal baseline pace at 7,350 feet. While some fans online mocked the trend of reporters jogging around the capital, Delaney used the demonstration to validate Thomas Tuchel’s concerns, writing that England simply could not fully adapt to the conditions in such a short window.
The Sun’s Chelsea and England reporter, Lloyd Canfield, was the next in the clip as he took the media altitude trend a step further by completing a hard 10-kilometer run through the streets of Mexico City.
Canfield filmed his double-distance run to evaluate what England’s players would face ahead of their dramatic round-of-16 clash at the Estadio Azteca. He reported that while the pace felt manageable early on, the 2,240-meter elevation and thin air severely caught up with him by the 8km mark, leaving him completely physically spent.
Canfield jokingly responded to criticism from other sports analysts begging journalists to stop posting 5km runs around the Azteca by proudly declaring, “Anyway, here’s 10km through Mexico City”.
Anyway here’s 10km through Mexico City https://t.co/qGb15EXlSB pic.twitter.com/4MQnls0KaE
— Lloyd Canfield (@LloydCanfield) July 4, 2026
Popular football content creator and host of the YouTube channel ‘Thogden’, Theo Ogden was featured in the clip after travelling to Mexico City to capture the fan and atmosphere buildup ahead of England’s World Cup clash with Mexico.
Ogden approached the trend with his signature fan-first style, challenging England fans on the ground to test their fitness in the punishing conditions. Rather than just running a standard solo 5km, he filmed a piece testing how long everyday England supporters could last running at 7,220 feet through the capital’s thinner air.
His footage captured fans starting with great confidence and calling the pre-match complaints an overreaction, only for the camera to cut to them completely gasping for air and being forced to stop within just a few minutes of jogging.
Pete Hall from ‘The I Paper’ was another journalist featured in the clip. Filming a package for the news channel, he also ran around the stadium and was captured heavily gasping for air, telling viewers how deceptively difficult it was to catch a normal breath. Just 2 kilometers into his run, he was forced to completely stop, noting that severe, unbearable altitude-induced heartburn made it impossible to continue.
The female BBC reporter featured in the compilation clip is BBC Sport correspondent Sarah Dawkins who logged a 7-kilometre fitness test through the crowded Historic Center of Mexico City, to test the challenging atmospheric conditions firsthand. Her live report on BBC Sport vividly illustrated how quickly oxygen deprivation leaves individuals entirely spent, capturing her gasping for air as her heart rate rapidly climbed.
🏃🏼♀️ ‘¿Qué tan difícil es correr a gran altitud?’, se preguntan en @BBCSport ante el partido entre México e Inglaterra de este domingo.
— Azucena Uresti (@azucenau) July 4, 2026
La periodista Sarah Dawkins realizó una prueba y concluyó tras correr 4.5 millas (poco más de 7 km): “Fue realmente difícil. Definitivamente…
The panel reacted with amusement and skepticism after watching a montage of journalists attempting to jog at high altitud. Chelsea legend John Terry completely dismissed the display as pathetic.
Piers Morgan remarked after the clips were shown, “It was making me laugh so much as if somehow their own experiences of jogging around the Aztec stadium were going to be in any way something that would possibly be relatable to the team.”
Regarding the journalists filming themselves running at altitude, Simon Jordan took a more nuanced stance.
Simon Jordan added, “I’m also going to be devil’s advocate because it’s very rare that journalists actually write anything they’ve experienced themselves… at least you’ve had five minutes.” Later, he joked about needing “more overweight journalists hobbling around in the heat pretending this is what they’ve had to go for a run at.”
While he acknowledged that it is rare for journalists to personally experience the conditions they write about, he felt that attempting the run gave them at least a brief, firsthand perspective to better inform the ‘shitty articles’ they were writing about the players.
When asked if he would have done the run himself, Terry replied: “No chance… I wouldn’t have done that ’cause it makes you look ridiculous.”
Piers Morgan criticized the media journalists, even though he was highly amused by the spectacle. He found it ridiculous that these journalists believed their own brief experiences of jogging around Estadio Azteca were in any way relatable to the professional players’ experience of the intense match conditions.
