The England team are taking no chances ahead of Euro 2024 as they wear titanium health rings worn by some of the world’s biggest celebrities.

As the team trained for their first Euro 2024 against Serbia on Sunday, manager Gareth Southgate was spotted wearing an Oura tracking ring.

Midfielder Conor Gallagher was spotted wearing one too and defender John Stones once described it as “addictive”.

“We beam with pride when we see these top athletes choosing Oura, which is really cool,” Doorthy Kilroy, the company’s Chief Commercial Officer, told Sky News.

So what is it?

Wearable trackers such as the Oura ring monitor aspects of the wearer healthsuch as their sleep, heart rate, stress levels and periods of activity.

For most of us, they can remind us to take care of ourselves. For athletes, they can help them achieve peak performance.

“The ring is now extremely advanced,” said Joao Bocas, a wearables expert who heads digital health company Salutem.

“It records heart rate, skin temperature variability and resting heart rate. (The new model) brings the blood oxygen sensor sensing capabilities, it even provides life insights on stress and resilience during the day.”

Will it give England an edge?

England are already favorites to win the European Championship, but the men’s team has never lifted a trophy in the competition.

They will look for anything that will help them bring home some silverware.

Dave Thomas works with England’s Olympic and Paralympic athletes at the UK Sports Institute, where he leads on “future technology”.

He says the ring could give the England team’s sports scientists a different perspective on how their players are faring during the tournament.

“In a sports environment you have a number of different wearables for different contexts,” Thomas told Sky News.

“They give clues as to whether (the athletes) are about to get a bug or if they are overloaded.

“It can signal to the sports scientists or the coaches that we need to take a step back and give them some rest.”

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Mr. Thomas pointed out that while he usually works with wearables that aren’t commercially available, trackers like the Oura ring can be more convenient for the athletes – meaning they actually use them.

“(Commercial trackers) are reliable and there is a low faff factor. While many things, as you increase the desired measurement precision and the accuracy and confidence, there is more hassle for the athlete.

“Basically they just want to concentrate on playing, concentrate on training and concentrate on resting.”

Are these types of trackers the future?

Health trackers have been around since the 1960s – there was always a dusty pedometer in the kitchen drawer when I was growing up – but there’s been a boom in the market lately.

Celebrities have jumped on board, with Kim Kardashian, Prince Harry and Gwyneth Paltrow all wearing Oura rings.

“There is definitely a trend of ‘fashion tech’, of being seen with the latest gadgets,” says Mr Bocas.

“But I also think COVID-19 has made us aware of what is important (in terms of our health).”

Ms. Kilroy of Oura agrees. She thinks the pandemic has driven the growing demand for wearable health technology.

“We all felt like our health was out of control, right? Things happened and we rushed to Google to get answers,” she said.

“So if you have access to your own data about how your body is doing, I think if you can understand that and have access to that data yourself, once you get a taste of that, it feels really liberating.”

But according to Mr. Bocas, we won’t be wearing health jewelry for much longer.

“In five to 10 years, the wearables we see today will be outdated: the bracelets, the rings, the watches,” he said.

“The technology has advanced so far that we have sensors that fit in our clothes, in our belts, in our glasses and in our shoes. Even, if I can be a little controversial here, implantable skin sensors where we don’t need to wear anything .”

For now, England fans are hoping that the ring on some of the team’s fingers will be enough to make them champions.