Jordan Henderson was left baffled by Harry Maguire in a bizarre moment during an England training session.
The Three Lions stars, who captain Liverpool and Manchester United respectively at club level, were on the same team for a training drill ahead of Saturday's 2-1 victory over Switzerland in a friendly.
Henderson and Maguire were involved in a rondo, an exercise in which multiple players keep the ball away from one or two men by attempting to pass around them in a small zone, in this case goalkeeper Nick Pope and playmaker Jack Grealish.
Usually, the ball is moved quickly in order to keep a high tempo and mirror an in-game situation, but the United defender's decision to control the ball and wait for Pope to close him down confused the Liverpool skipper.
"What you doing?" quizzed Henderson, as his teammates looked equally puzzled on an episode of Inside Training posted on the Three Lions' YouTube channel.
The video cuts away from the action, leaving us guessing as to Maguire's explanation. Although both players are key members of Gareth Southgate 's side, the duo have had contrasting seasons with their clubs. Liverpool sit one point behind Premier League leaders Manchester City and are in the quarter-finals of the Champions League, while United languish in sixth place and are out of Europe's elite competition.
Particularly for Maguire, international duty has proved some much-needed respite, with goals from Luke Shaw and Harry Kane getting 2022 off to a winning start ahead of the World Cup in Qatar later this year. As the centre-back watched on from the bench at Wembley and Henderson played the full match, Switzerland took a shock lead through Breel Embolo.
The Borussia Monchengladbach forward headed home a cross from Xherdan Shaqiri, who left Liverpool last summer to join Lyon and later Chicago Fire in the United States, in the 22nd minute. But seconds after the board for added-time was held up at the end of the first half, Shaw rifled home after being teed up by Conor Gallagher to level the scores.
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The second period saw Southgate ring in the changes by using all five of his allotted changes and in the 78th minute, VAR overturned Swedish referee Andreas Ekberg's initial decision and awarded England with a penalty after a handball from substitute Steven Zuber. Captain Kane stepped up, lashing home past Jonas Omlin to equal Sir Bobby Charlton 's record of 49 goals for the Three Lions and win the game.
"I thought it was a really good test," Southgate explained post-match, as England stretched their unbeaten run since the Euro 2020 final defeat to Italy to eight games. "We went behind, we had tactical problems to solve, we had to defend properly. "Of course towards the end of the game we were able to get more experience and some top players onto the pitch, which made us finish strongly as well and that was important for the team and also for the crowd." The Three Lions next host Ivory Coast on Tuesday.
