A game of two halfwits
COVIDIOTS PUT SQUAD AT RISK
NEW England football stars Mason Greenwood and Phil Foden were sent home in disgrace last night for smuggling women into the team’s hotel in Iceland.
Greenwood, 18, and Foden, 20, flouted the team’s strict quarantine rules by inviting model Nadia Sif Lindal Gunnarsdottir and her cousin Lara Clausen inside.
The girls said they spent a “good night” with the players who were “perfect gentlemen”.
But the hook- up breached the quarantine bubble around the England team to protect the players from Covid- 19.
Sneaked
When Three Lions bosses found out, the pair were banned from training and sent home. The rest of the squad flew on to Denmark for tonight’s Nations League match.
The pair face fines of up to £ 1,360 each by local police for breaching Covid restrictions.
Manager Gareth Southgate said: “Obviously they have been naive. We have dealt with it appropriately. I recognise their age but the whole world is dealing with this pandemic.”
Last night Nadia, 20, told how she had chatted online with Manchester United star Greenwood – who split from his model girlfriend Harriet Robson in May – for a “couple of days” before the team flew to Iceland’s capital Reykjavik.
He and Manchester City midfielder Foden, who has a two- two year- year old son with longterm long girlfriend Rebecca Cooke, 20, sneaked the women into the hotel after making their England debuts in their side’s 1- 0 defeat of Iceland.
The England team had been given an exemption from Iceland’s quarantine rules to travel for the match
Nadia said: “They did know that they had to quarantine but we figured that since they were playing Iceland they had been tested before and it would be OK.’’ News of the meeting leaked after a video emerged showing the women talking over the phone to the footballers about sneaking in.
A later video showed the footballers inside the hotel.
The girls apologised for their part in the incident. Nadia said: “I feel really sorry.
“I never wanted to put them in that position but we didn’t know any better and we didn’t know that they were quarantining, or else we wouldn’t have gone to meet them.
“We haven’t spoken to them
since. since We don’t want to interrupt them because they are of course going through a lot right now. They haven’t contacted us. It was a good night that we had, of course.
“We were all the four of us spending time together and getting to know each other. They were nice guys. Really, really nice.’’
Law student Lara, 19, added: “They were just young. We were all young and stupid and we all make mistakes. They treated us really well. They
were such gentlemen.’’ Both Manchester United and City expressed disappointment with the players’ behaviour.
An England spokesman said Foden and Greenwood had both “apologised for their serious lack of judgement”.
The FA – which will conduct a “full investigation” – apologised and assured Denmark officials the rest of the squad had remained “isolated”.