TARNISHED MAGUIRE IS FACING HIS TOUGHEST TEST Skipper shamed while Southgate’s left red-faced

HARRY MAGUIRE is facing the biggest crisis of his career.

The Manchester United captain’s remarkable rise from the lower divisions to becoming the world’s most expensive defender has been tarnished by the guilty verdict from a Greek court.

Maguire, 27, pleaded his innocence, but the criminal conviction leaves his international future in serious doubt.

It has made it difficult for Three Lions boss Gareth Southgate to back his defender, who was found guilty of three charges after being arrested while on holiday in Mykonos.

Maguire was withdrawn from the England squad last night, which makes his initial inclusion by Southgate look very misguided.

He was sentenced to 21 months and 10 days in jail, suspended for three years, but perhaps even worse is the stain on his character.

Southgate got it horribly wrong by including the £80million defender in his England squad for the Nations League games against Iceland and Denmark. There were voices at the FA urging caution, advising Southgate not to pick him.

But the manager’s determination to support his player – who he described as an “outstanding character”, whose version of events was very different to what had been reported – backfired spectacularly.

Incredibly, Southgate held a video media conference to name his squad and by the time he came to speak to the press, he could barely take his eyes off his phone as he frantically looked for updates.

The timing was terrible because just over three hours after naming his squad, Maguire’s guilty verdict came in – and Southgate was left with egg on his face. The boss, still holed up at St George’s Park, was forced to U-turn.

His backing was admirable, but surely misjudged and naive because why would a Greek judge take the word of an English footballer over police officers from his own country?

Other members of Southgate’s squad may also question why unwavering support was given to Maguire – while others have been hung out to dry.

Former England captain Wayne Rooney lost the armband soon after gatecrashing a wedding party while on international duty in November 2016.

Raheem Sterling was banned for one England game after a bust-up with Liverpool defender Joe Gomez.

But Kyle Walker has been recalled to Southgate’s squad despite breaking lockdown on three occasions, which has left the boss’s dressing-room ethics hard to fathom.

Southgate came up with an amusing quote when defending naming Walker in his 24-man squad. “Of course I can’t ignore off-field events and events that happen away from our camps, but I also can’t just pick a team to win based on the best-behaved XI. It’s just not realistic,” he explained.

“If you look at some of the greatest competitors in the world and winners in every sport, they are not always easy to manage and they are not perfect. And none of us are.

“My job is to pick an England team to win as I’ve said before. I’ve got to balance what the line is on that. I know the progress we’ve made as a team in terms of the connection with the country.”

Yet England does expect its players to behave well and set a good example.

Sadly for Maguire, this was surely the worst day of his career.