England’s football stars have landed themselves in hot water again after Jadon Sancho, Ben Chilwell and Tammy Abraham attended a party on Saturday night with more than six people, breaking coronavirus regulations.
The trio were at Abraham’s mansion in London celebrating the Chelsea forward’s 23rd birthday with around 20 friends and family, just two days before meeting up with the England squad ahead of Thursday’s friendly against Wales, as reported by The Sun.
The incident is another headache for England manager Gareth Southgate after Mason Greenwood and Phil Foden broke strict covid-bubble rules last month in Iceland, and Sancho, Chilwell and Abraham may now have put their national team-mates in danger by ignoring the ‘group of six’ regulations.
Tammy Abraham (left), Jadon Sancho (right) and Ben Chilwell attended a party on Saturday
England left back and new Chelsea signing Chilwell was present for Abraham’s 23rd birthday
England boss Gareth Southgate has another headache to now deal with after the incident
Mason Greenwood and Phil Foden (pictured) broke protocols after they sneaked girls into their hotel room in Iceland, breaking the team’s anti-Covid-19 bubble
Footage from the surprise party, where social distancing did not seem to be taking place, was posted on social media on Saturday night.
As stated by the UK government, emergency coronavirus laws ban people from mixing in groups of more than six, with fines of up to £10,000.
One video shows Chilwell laughing with his Chelsea and England team-mate Abraham, after seeing him talking to a blonde woman.
Abraham is also videoed alongside his girlfriend, Leah Monroe, as a group of about 20 sing ‘Happy Birthday.’
Sancho, who missed Borussia Dortmund’s win on Saturday reportedly due to illness, is seen with a mask around his chin and dancing amongst a crowd of people.
As per the report in The Sun, one reveller said: ‘It was a great party. We wanted to do something nice for his birthday. But maybe we didn’t think it through.’
The England squad congregate at the national team base at St George’s Park on Monday and every member of the team will be tested for COVID-19.
Sancho (left) missed his game for Borussia Dortmund on Saturday reportedly due to illness
Abraham has apologised for the surprise birthday bash on Saturday at his house in London
A source close to Abraham said of the party: ‘He genuinely had no idea it was going to happen. He and Sancho didn’t drink alcohol.
‘It was family and very close friends only — and they even did temperature checks on arrival.’
The FA have examined footage and said: ‘There will be no change to the England team at this stage.’
Abraham, however, has apologised following his surprise bash, saying: ‘I arrived home to find a small surprise gathering.
‘Though I was totally unaware this was planned, I would like to wholeheartedly apologise for the naivety shown for the organisation and attending of this gathering.
‘All I can do now is learn from it, apologise to everyone and ensure it never happens again.’
Last week, manager Southgate said: ‘I guess what I would say is that players who have worked with us for a long time know how we operate and know that we won’t duck decisions.
‘What we found in the last camp was lots of new players coming in so I think that maybe as a reminder when you have got lots of new players that you have to be a little more… not assuming that people are going to understand how you work and pick it up from the rest of the group.
‘In what we are dealing with at the moment the interaction with the group is more difficult. Players are not allowed to sit so long together and chat.
‘It’s hard for senior players to mentor younger ones in quite the same way because we are having to sit in masks all the time, we can only sit together for 15 minutes.
‘We are having to socially distance. It’s a really strange environment and not so easy for players coming in. But I think always, you have to work at culture. It never is embedded forever, Its constantly evolving. The team group is constantly evolving as players come and go.
The party happened on Saturday night, just hours after Chilwell scored his first Chelsea goal
Greenwood and Foden were dropped from the squad last week following the Iceland incident
‘So you have always got to keep affecting that, keep addressing that and we will discuss the shirt, what it means to wear the shirt and some reminders on how we work but that’s not a case of reading the riot act.
‘That’s a case of asking the players what sort of team they want to be involved in and be a part of and I think they have shown so many positives over the last years but we had not been together for 10 months.
‘We addressed some of that last time round but obviously when something like what has happened has happened we have to revisit that.’