London (AFP) – England manager Gareth Southgate sought to defuse an incident involving Dele Alli after the midfielder was caught on camera raising his middle finger during Monday’s 2-1 win over Slovakia.
Television footage of the World Cup qualifier at Wembley showed Tottenham Hotspur player Alli make the gesture in the 77th minute of the game, but it was not clear at whom it was aimed.
Pictures and footage of Alli’s gesture were widely shared on social media, but Southgate said the 21-year-old had simply been joking around with his former Spurs team-mate Kyle Walker.
“Dele and Kyle Walker were messing about and Dele made a gesture towards Kyle,” Southgate told reporters at Wembley, having consulted Alli about the matter after the game.
“They have a strange way of communicating!”
Alli has had a number of run-ins with the football authorities and has faced calls to curb his fiery temperament.
He missed the Premier League title run-in in 2015-16 after punching West Bromwich Albion’s Claudio Yacob and was sent off for a dangerous foul on Gent’s Brecht Dejaegere during a Europa League game last February.
Marcus Rashford was England’s saviour against Slovakia, atoning for an error that gifted Stanislav Lobotka an early opener by setting up Eric Dier’s equaliser and then netting a fine 59th-minute winner.
England now require just two points from their last two games, at home to Slovenia and away to Lithuania, to qualify for next year’s World Cup in Russia.
