GARY LINEKER was famously never booked during his football career – but that didn’t stop him from engaging in the dark arts.
The England legend has admitted he somehow avoided a yellow at Euro 1992 after “stamping” on an opponent’s toe.
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Gary Lineker has revealed he stamped on an opponent in Euro 1992Credit: BBC
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The former England and Spurs star was famously never booked through his entire careerCredit: News Group Newspapers Ltd
Lineker played almost 600 professional games in a career spanning 16 years.
The 63-year-old was never cautioned and in 1990 was honoured with the Fifa Fair Play Award.
But in a recent episode of the The Rest Is Football podcast. Lineker admitted how close he came to that famous record disappearing.
Discussing his toughest defensive battles with co-hosts Alan Shearer and Micah Richards, he said: “Mine would probably be a defender from France called Basile Boli.
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“I remember playing in the Euros and he was marking me from corners but he wasn’t just marking me. He was giving me a bear hug.
“Not in a romantic way, in the way that I couldn’t breathe and he was squeezing.
“He was just arms around me, and this is obviously before VAR, and he just held me and held me.
“So he did this about two or three corners, whatever we had, and I said to the ref ‘I mean come on’.”
Max Verstappen will take a five-place grid penalty for an engine change for Sunday’s Brazilian Grand Prix, as he moves on to his sixth internal combustion engine of the 2024 Formula 1 season.
The championship leader had already taken a new ICE beyond the allowable limit of four at July’s Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps, this being the third successive year that Red Bull had chosen to take the hit at that circuit.
Following a series of power unit issues in Mexico’s Friday sessions, as an air leak kept Verstappen confined to the garage during the final part of FP1 and the majority of FP2, Red Bull has chosen to take another engine from outside its pool.
This means that Verstappen will lose five places from wherever he qualifies for Sunday’s grand prix, although his sprint race qualifying result will be unaffected.
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Verstappen will also use a new exhaust system, taking him up to eight used throughout the season, with eight permitted through the year.
The Dutchman has been in an increasingly precarious situation with his engine allowance for much of the season, as a problem with one unit in practice for the Canadian Grand Prix in June led to a lengthy inspection – leading to a fourth ICE being used as early as Spain.
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing
Photo by: Andrew Ferraro / Motorsport Images
This led to Red Bull taking a new Honda powerplant at Spa, but Verstappen has now lost another from his pool as a result of the issues in Mexico.
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Red Bull adviser Helmut Marko told Austrian broadcaster ORF that the engine eventually used at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez “was no longer intended for the race, and the older an engine gets, the more its performance diminishes.”
He added that the Red Bull was giving up approximately “three to eight km/h on the straights” thanks to the reduction in horsepower.
Asked on Thursday if Brazil was one of the less compromising races to take a power unit penalty, Verstappen responded that it was not a certainty that he could recover ground lost to a penalty.
“That is something that is always unknown. You think that one particular track is the best place to take an engine or whatever penalty, but it’s never guaranteed. But yeah, it’s a possibility.”
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Danny Parkins makes his predictions for the best bets to pursue in Week 9, including the Philadelphia Eagles under the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Indianapolis Colts over the Minnesota Vikings, and the Atlanta Falcons under the Dallas Cowboys.
A man has been arrested following a burglary at England cricket captain Ben Stokes’s home, police have said.
Stokes, who was in Pakistan for the recent Test series, said his wife and two children were at the property in Castle Eden, County Durham, during the break-in on 17 October, when his OBE and other valuables were taken.
Durham Police said a 32-year-old man from North Yorkshire was arrested overnight on suspicion of burglary.
He has been released on bail while the investigation continues, the force added.
EDMONTON, Alberta, Canada – UFC Fight Night 246 ceremonial fighter weigh-ins take place Friday, and you can catch a live video stream of the proceedings here on MMA Junkie at 7:30 p.m. ET (4:30 p.m. PT).
The weigh-ins take place at Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.. The same venue hosts Saturday’s event (ESPN+). In addition to the video stream above, you can check out the official UFC Fight Night 246 weigh-in results from earlier in the day.
Sergio Perez has changed chassis for the Brazilian Grand Prix after Red Bull agreed to a request from the struggling Mexican driver.
In the wake of a hugely disappointing home outing for Perez in Mexico City last weekend, he has been looking for answers about why his form has been so disappointing in recent outings.
Red Bull has now confirmed that as part of its bid to do everything possible to help its driver, the team has agreed to swap chassis for this weekend’s Interlagos event to see if that brings any improvement.
Red Bull chief engineer Paul Monaghan said: “We’ve changed him back into a different chassis, which we can do.
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“He asked if we can, and we said fine. The boys have got a bit of work, but they didn’t mind.”
Monaghan clarified that this was a chassis that had been used previously this year, rather than being brand new.
“We don’t make a new one at this point of the season,” he said.
While he has been given a different chassis, Perez will continue to run an older-specification floor in Brazil compared to team-mate Max Verstappen – but hopes he will have the same spec by Las Vegas.
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Sergio Perez, Red Bull Racing RB20, Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB20
Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images
Speaking about the new floor, Perez said: “We don’t have it at the moment. Hopefully for Vegas, as there will be a little bit more time.
“[It means] we are carrying a little bit of weight, and it is not ideal, but the team is doing the best they can.”
Monaghan has played down the differences though, suggesting the detailed tweaks are not that major to lead to a lap time deficit.
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“Checo is on a different edge specification from Max,” said Monaghan. “So, if you look at the edge wing itself, it’s subtly different. It’s a small difference.
“The magnitude is, I would argue, small enough that it’s not going to cause him to have a significant difference to Max.
“We’ve done it like that purely and simply because it’s the best way to service two cars and ensure that we can service them fairly with spares.”
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Red Bull also said that the brake problems that Perez complained about hurting his pace in Mexico were nothing major.
“I don’t know there was anything particularly wrong with the car, but the brake material, we don’t put it on for multiple events,” he added.
“We can vary the temperature of the brakes. Equally he can vary them if he sits in traffic and so on. But I think we’ve resolved the doubts we have over those.”
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