"So then we will not be looking for sex or having sex at the World Cup just to have it, we are going to go after what we came for, a competition that gives us the opportunity to rise above and do something really great. So I don't think that the guys even have this [sex] on their minds. They don't have an idea about it. We talked about it because there was a buzz about it and we got criticised because I commented that in a team you have to worry about what is best for the team. In a club, you lose one week and you get a second chance the next week. But on a national team, you lose once and you are out of the World Cup."

Herrera later admitted there was no way to enforce the ban.

"I am not thinking about prohibiting sex. I am thinking about football. I hope the players are thinking the same way," he said. "Forty days of sexual abstinence is not going to hurt anyone."

The Mexican national team have struggled since the last World Cup in South Africa in 2010. They were one of the last teams to qualify for 2014 after they failed to earn an automatic berth in the CONCACAF group finishing behind the US, Costa Rica and Honduras. They made the final 32 only after beating New Zealand in a sudden-death tie.

Herrera was appointed to the job in October last year and was the fourth national team manager Mexico had within a month following their troubled qualification campaign.