Kevin Hubbard was driving a heavy goods vehicle on the A19 southbound near Sunderland when he collided with a Ford Transit van, on November 5, 2014.

Keith Jameson was attempting to open the bonnet of the van in the nearside lane after it had broken down, when he was struck by the lorry.

The emergency services attended the scene and found Mr Jameson suffering serious injuries, before rushing him to hospital in a bid to save him.

Lorry driver sentenced for second time at Newcastle Crown Court following death of collision victim almost a decade after the incident (Image: The Northern Echo)

A further vehicle was also damaged in the incident, but the driver was not badly injured.

Mr Jameson survived the crash but suffered life-changing injuries after being diagnosed with quadriplegia, leaving him paralysed in all four limbs.

After nearly ten years of receiving around the clock care, he died as a result of his condition at the age of 71, on April 16, 2024.

Members of Northumbria Police’s Serious Collision Investigation Unit re-opened the case following his death, leading to Hubbard being charged with causing death by dangerous driving.

The now 67-year-old defendant, of Lichfield Road in Sunderland, admitted causing Mr Jameson’s death by dangerous driving at Newcastle Crown Court in December 2025.

He appeared before the same court today (Monday June 8) when Judge Tim Gittins sentenced him to an additional 20 months in prison, following his original 24-month custodial sentence when he was initially convicted after trial, in February 2016.

In a victim impact statement read out at the hearing, Keith’s family shared their pain after watching him suffer for more than a decade before his death.

Sergeant Russell Surrey, who led the investigation in the force’s Serious Collision Investigation Unit, said: “First and foremost, I would like to express my sheer admiration for Keith and his family, who have undeniably suffered for such a long time following the collision.

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“Had Hubbard been driving his vehicle in the way that was expected of him in 2014, Keith would have gone on to live a full and normal life with his loved ones.

“When we became aware that Keith had tragically died as a result of his injuries, we immediately re-opened the investigation in a bid to secure further justice in his name.

“Unfortunately, no outcome can undo the suffering Keith endured in his final years, or the unimaginable pain experienced by his family and loved ones.”

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump is set to be the first sitting U.S. president to attend an NBA Finals game, bringing strict security measures that will require New York Knicks fans to navigate an extensive safety perimeter around Madison Square Garden and an expected lengthy wait to get inside the building.

The security for Game 3 between the Knicks and San Antonio Spurs and the scene around the arena more closely resembled New Year’s Eve in Times Square, and for fans, it might seem more akin to a trip to the airport. They were asked to get to the game two hours early and will be required to provide a ticket to get past various checkpoints along with passing through a TSA-style magnetometer.

Trump’s appearance led the New York Police Department and Secret Service to establish a multi-block security perimeter around the arena, cancel a watch party outside and institute a no-bag policy for ticket-holders. Fans had gathered around the Garden to watch games during this playoff run, during which the Knicks have won 13 games in a row to reach the final for the first time since 1999 and move two victories from their first NBA title since 1973.

“The NYPD in coordination with the Secret Service made the decision for Game 3, where we have a presidential visit, that we could not support watch parties right outside of the Garden,” Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at a news conference Monday. “We are looking forward to bringing back watch parties for Game 4. But I think New Yorkers are used to presidents coming to town, and they understand that that generally means lockdowns of areas and that’s what you’re going to see tonight at the Garden.”

Trump has attended several major sporting events in his time as president, and the security measures have created major hassles for fans.

Thousands of fans missed the start of last year’s U.S. Open men’s singles final between Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner because of lengthy security lines. Even though the U.S. Tennis Association pushed back the start of the match by a half-hour, many fans still couldn’t get in because added measures meant that they had to go through screening not only when they arrived at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center but again in front of the steps into Arthur Ashe Stadium, where Trump watched from a suite.

Asked his thoughts on Trump attending, Knicks center Mitchell Robinson said: “Cool, I guess. We can still get out there and play (no matter) who’s here and who’s not.”

Mayor Zohran Mamdani and other dignitaries are also expected to be at the game Monday night.

It was already hard enough for Knicks fans to get inside Madison Square Garden because of astronomical ticket prices. The get-in price for a ticket is higher than the average cost of monthly rent in New York, surging over $6,000. The best seats are tens of thousands of dollars. Mamdani said he bought his ticket for about $1,000 directly from Madison Square Garden.

The difficulty of seeing the game in-person has prompted fans to crowd bars, streets and watch parties all over the city. The watch party near the Garden has become a major event all through the playoffs, but with Trump attending, that event will be moved a few blocks away outside the security perimeter, at Bryant Park.

“We improvise,” said Knicks guard Jose Alvarado, who is a New York native. “We’re New Yorkers. We’re going to find a way to watch a game, and that’s what we’re doing.”

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AP Sports Writer Brian Mahoney contributed to this report.

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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA

Plymouth was one of the most heavily bombed British cities during World War Two.

More than 50 bombing raids were carried out on the city between 1941 and 1944, killing about 1,178 civilians.

Official records estimate that at least 2,820 bombs were dropped on Plymouth, with about 10 per cent failing to detonate, leaving unexploded ordnance scattered across the area.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans are warning the White House that a critical surveillance authority is likely to lapse this week amid bipartisan backlash over President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the nation’s intelligence community.

Sen. Tom Cotton, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and Sen. Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, sounded the alarm over the weekend after a failed procedural vote to extend the program.

The senators in a letter urged Secretary of State Marco Rubio to prepare “for a potential significant gap in foreign intelligence collection” if the authority expires. Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, set to lapse June 12, allows agencies including the CIA, National Security Agency and FBI to collect communications from foreign targets overseas without a warrant.

Efforts to secure a long-term extension of the program already faced hurdles because of bipartisan concerns that the program can incidentally collect Americans’ communications. Privacy advocates and some lawmakers have been pushing to create a new warrant requirement before those communications can be searched.

Senate leaders from both parties appeared to be nearing agreement on a long-term extension. But the effort collapsed after Trump selected federal housing finance regulator Bill Pulte to serve as acting director of national intelligence.

“I know how important this tool is. Why the president would throw this live hand grenade of Bill Pulte in 10 days before this is due to expire, I’m not sure,” Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said on ABC’s “This Week.”

Pulte pick upends bipartisan deal

Early Friday morning, after senators spent the night debating separate immigration legislation, seven Republicans joined nearly all Democrats in blocking a long-term extension of the surveillance authority.

Democrats and several Republicans registered their opposition to Trump’s selection of Pulte, arguing the federal housing finance regulator lacks the experience needed to oversee the nation’s 18 intelligence agencies.

“The naming of Pulte to that position, although the timing arguably wasn’t the best, I still don’t think it ought to derail something that’s this important,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said.

Thune has expressed concern over Pulte’s pick, saying the nation’s top intelligence post should not be “weaponized” and that the job should be filled by “professionals.” Cotton, who rarely strays from supporting Trump and a leading advocate for the surveillance authority, declined to endorse Pulte, saying only that he had “no observations on the matter.”

“He’s not qualified for the long-term position,” Republican Sen. James Lankford, another member of the Intelligence Committee, told “Fox News Sunday.” “That’s been clear on this. He has no national security background.”

Both Republican and Democratic senators skeptical of Pulte pointed to his record at the Federal Housing Finance Agency. In the role, he’s been linked with criminal referrals over allegations of mortgage fraud by public officials Trump sought to punish, including New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat; Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif.; and Lisa Cook, a board member of the Federal Reserve.

Republicans will need to garner some Democratic support to pass any extension of the surveillance authority in the Senate. But a breakthrough appears difficult so long as Pulte remains in the position, which Trump said last week would only be temporary.

“I don’t see any path to convincing enough Democrats,” Warner said on CNN’s “State of the Union” when asked if renewal was possible with Pulte in the position.

A key surveillance tool

The current reauthorization debate is hardly the first time that lawmakers have grappled with the fate of the surveillance program, particularly after a flurry of revelations about government misuse of the vast trove of intelligence it collects.

The topic in recent years has scrambled predictable partisan alliances, with Democratic critics of the Trump administration uniting with skeptics of government power on the right in voicing concerns about Section 702’s renewal.

In 2024, for instance, those divisions nearly caused the program to lapse. The Senate barely missed its midnight deadline that year before approving by a 60-34 margin legislation to reauthorize Section 702 that was subsequently signed by then-President Joe Biden.

A spokesperson at the Justice Department did not immediately return messages seeking comment Monday about the national security concerns that would be created if the program lapses. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence referred inquiries to the White House, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“America faces real threats from foreign adversaries, terrorists, cyber actors, and hostile intelligence services,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on social media Sunday. “Section 702 remains one of our nation’s most effective tools for identifying and disrupting those threats before they reach our shores.”

Cotton and Grassley said they believed Democratic leaders would not support another short-term extension of the surveillance authority and urged Rubio to prepare contingency plans. They said Trump should consider an executive order to prevent a disruption in intelligence collection.

Cotton and Warner had said they were close on a bipartisan deal on a long-term extension and could still move quickly should a change occur before Friday. Still, the bill would likely need to go through the House — and the two chambers so far have disagreed on a separate issue regarding central banking digital currency.

“If we go dark next week, right before the World Cup FIFA games, and the 250th anniversary, that would be the most grossly irresponsible thing I’ve seen Congress do in my 22 years in office,” Texas Republican Rep. Michael McCaul said on ABC’s “This Week.”

However, jurors also heard a statement from a second expert who concluded ‘there is no psychiatric explanation for Noah’s disappearance or death’

It is possible Noah Donohoe “had lost touch with reality and was in a psychotic state” as he travelled through Belfast on the night of his disappearance, a psychologist’s statement that was read at the inquest into his death has said.

However, jurors at Belfast Coroner’s Court also heard a statement from another expert who concluded “there is no psychiatric explanation for Noah Donohoe’s disappearance or death”.

The 14-year-old had been planning to meet with school friends at Cavehill after setting out on his bike on Sunday June 21, 2020.

He was captured on CCTV cycling through the city centre and then towards the north of the city. In the final clip, the last footage of Noah before he disappeared, he is seen riding the bike naked.

His naked body was found in an underground water tunnel on June 27, six days after he left home.

A postmortem examination found the likely cause of death was drowning.

On Monday, the court heard a statement from Dr Louise Bowers, forensic psychologist, dated October 2021.

Among the items Noah had in his possession when he left home in June 2020 was the self-help book 12 Rules for Life, by the author Jordan Peterson.

Dr Bowers said Noah was “totally obsessed” with the 12 Rules for Life book which clearly had a “profound impact on Noah and almost certainly influenced some of the changes” seen in the days of June 2020, but alone is not enough to explain “troubling behaviour” before his death.

She said Noah was “adored by his mother” and the pair had a “strong attachment to each other”.

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He also “did not have a history of mental health difficulties” and no evidence he was experiencing any mental disorders, with “no history of self-harming behaviour or suicidal ideation”.

Dr Bowers said it is possible Noah had some “traits of autism spectrum disorder (ASD)” but concluded he was a “quirky young man with some obsessional traits” that would not have met the threshold for diagnosis.

She described Noah as a “reasonably well-adjusted 14-year-old” but his mother had reported in the days before his death he had become “weepy, his mood was low, had become more affectionate physically and verbally towards her”.

He had become “extremely introspective” and “rejected offers” from his friends to talk, being “awake in the middle of the night and searching for things that at times had dark themes”.

While Dr Bowers found no events in Noah’s life that may have triggered depression, the illness can develop “without warning in children who were previously well-adjusted”.

She said it is “possible Noah was experiencing some symptoms of depression in the run-up to his disappearance”.

The psychologist also ruled that Noah was “showing signs of psychological disturbance before he left his house” which became “much more concerning” on departure, and then showed “increasingly disturbed behaviour as he cycled through the city of Belfast”.

He went on to discard his rucksack and laptop, before the rest of his clothing, in what Dr Bowers described as a “sequence of unusual and perplexing behaviour”.

She ruled that a postmortem examination of Noah’s body made it unlikely to be caused by taking drugs or alcohol or a head injury.

She said symptoms of a psychotic episode include hallucinations, delusions and confused and disturbed thought.

While 14 “would be very young to be having a first psychotic episode” and it is practically “unheard of” for a psychotic episode to instigate so quickly and be so dramatic, the psychologist said there was “something ritualistic” about how Noah discarded his possessions and that “religious and philosophical themes” can be present in delusions.

“It is possible Noah had lost touch with reality and was in a psychotic state leading him to believe he was being instructed to behave in these unusual ways,” her statement read.

The inquest then heard two statements from Dr Seena Fazel, a consultant psychiatrist.

In his first statement in November 2021, Dr Fazel ruled that Noah’s death was “likely suicide”, but in a statement from March 2026, given after he had seen further material, the doctor concluded “there is no psychiatrist explanation for Noah Donohoe’s disappearance or death”.

In his first statement, Dr Fazel said Noah’s “mood was lower and more unstable in the days before his disappearance”, potentially indicating an “acute episode of low and unstable mood which lasted a few days”.

In his revised statement based on new material – which amounted to more than 700 pages including another psychiatrist’s interview with Ms Donohoe and transcripts of Noah’s friends’ evidence to the inquest – along with discussion with other psychiatrists analysing Noah, Dr Fazel said he does “not think it was suicide on the balance of probabilities”.

He said Noah’s “changes to mental state were probably not consistent with an acute episode of low mood”, adding: “I do not think there were any mental health conditions prior to his disappearance.”

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David Sullivan has been accused of ‘preying on teenage models’ in an explosive Panorama episode.

The 77-year-old resigned as West Ham joint-chair and has vowed to sue the BBC ahead of the ‘impending publication of serious historic allegations’.

BBC’s Panorama reported Sullivan admitting to paying for sex in the 90s with a girl who, he says, he believed was 16 or 17 years old at the time.

It only became illegal to pay for sex with a 16 or 17-year-old in 2003.

The allegations come from seven models, in their late teens or early twenties at the time, seeking work at his Daily and Sunday Sport titles.

One using the name Florence claims Sullivan penetrated her after promising to make her one of his ‘regular girls’.

Then, aged 20, she tried to make excuses, including that she was on her period, before he manoeuvred her into a bedroom and started having sex with her, she said.

‘This is the bit that will haunt me forever,’ she said.

‘He lifted his pinky in the air – his little finger – and he went, it’s all right, I’ll only put it in a little bit.’

She was in ‘pure panic mode’, Florence said, and she is ‘99.999999%’ sure that she was telling him: ‘I don’t want to, I don’t want to.’

‘I don’t know whether it was a whisper. It wasn’t a scream,’ she said.

Florence said she panicked and said her boyfriend was outside, but Sullivan was undeterred, saying: ‘It will only take a minute and he never has to know.’

His lawyers say Florence’s account is ‘implausible’.

Blow job or no job

Panorama alleges Sullivan earned the nickname ‘No job/blow job’ – after allegedly asking models to perform oral sex in return for modelling in his papers.

The Guardian once quoted him as saying: ‘I’ve always said what’s the point in owning a sweet shop if you can’t eat a few sweets.’

Sacha another model claimed she remembered being summoned to his mansion for a business meeting.

She said she was surprised by how scruffily dressed the businessman was when she met him, finding him in ‘flip-flops’ and a scruffy t-shirt.

‘But when he asked me to come and sit next to him, I’m like, what is going on? Like, that’s not part of the job interview. So I walk over, I put my bra back on… and I sat as far away as I could get.’

She said she told him: ‘If you think I’m going to sleep with you to get in the paper, you’ve got another thing coming.’

‘He looked very shocked as I said that,’ she continued. ‘And then said, what, not even a blow job?”

Shocked, she said she replied: ‘No, definitely not.’

Sullivan, who made his fortune from pornography, claims he is now facing ‘a small number of improper conduct claims’ after meeting ‘thousands of women’ in the adult industry.

In his own statement, Sullivan branded the allegations made against him as ‘defamatory’ and ‘false’, and said he plans to sue the BBC for libel.

‘I have recently become aware that factually incorrect and entirely false, decades-old allegations concerning my personal life are due to be broadcast and published,’ Sullivan said.

‘The false allegations levelled against me have been sensationalised by the media. After a lifetime spent building businesses in the adult industry in which I have met thousands of women, it is sadly inevitable that a small number of improper conduct claims are being made against me. I categorically deny these claims.

‘I am a private man, and those who personally and professionally know the real David Sullivan, not the caricature invented by the tabloids, know exactly who I am and what I stand for. I am absolutely not the person the media has decided to paint me as.

‘I have not been provided with any proper explanation as to how these individuals or their claims were independently verified or assessed for credibility prior to publication. I believe that the entire process has been fundamentally unfair and completely lacking in any due impartiality. I will be suing the BBC for libel, along with any other media outlet that repeats any libellous allegations.

‘None of these allegations relate to my more than 30 years in football; West Ham United has been one of the greatest passions and privileges of my life. I care deeply about the club, its supporters, its players, its staff, and its future. At what is already a challenging and important time for the club, I refuse to allow personal matters concerning me to become an unnecessary distraction or a source of instability.

‘Therefore, after very careful consideration and with a heavy heart, I have decided to resign as Joint-Chair and Director of West Ham United FC with immediate effect.’

A liquidator has been appointed

A Cambridgeshire based company has entered into liquidation after nearly 19 years, according to the London Gazette. D & L Groundworks Limited, specialising in construction and civil engineering, based in Whittlesey, entered liquidation in April.

A Winding-Up Notice was published in the London Gazette on April 8. A liquidator has been appointed.

The Gazette states that it is a ‘Creditors’ liquidation. Molly Monks of Parker Walsh has been appointed as liquidator of the company for the purposes of the voluntary winding-up.

Companies House confirmed that the business is now in liquidation. Documents show that the company, of Peterborough Road, Whittlesey, was registered in June 2007.

The company previously traded under the name ‘DLP Groundworks Ltd’. It has two current listed directors: Lesley Jane Page and Darren Michael Page, both of Peterborough Road.

A notice on London Gazette states: “At a General Meeting of the Members of the above-named Company [D & L Groundworks Limited], duly convened, and held at Suite C, Victoria House, Bramhall, Cheshire SK7 2BE on 1 April 2026 at 10.00 am the following resolutions were passed by the Members as a Special resolution and as an Ordinary resolution:

“That the Company be wound up voluntarily and that Molly Monks (IP No. 19830) of Parker Walsh, Suite C, Victoria House, Bramhall, Cheshire SK7 2BE be appointed Liquidator of the Company.”

Ministers will soon announce new online safety measures for youngsters, including a possible ban for under 16s for apps like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok – but it won’t be the end of the issue

Liz Kendall has warned the public that upcoming plans to crack down on kids’ social media usage will not mean the issue is “one and done”.

The Technology Secretary said she wants to protect kids from “harms and risks” online but also to prepare them for a life that will involve technology in some way in the future.

Keir Starmer will soon announce new online safety measures for youngsters, which is expected to include a ban for under 16s for apps like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.

Asked about the UK mirroring an Australian-style ban, Ms Kendall said the UK’s consultation has looked at a wider range of issues, including how kids can partner with strangers on gaming sites, addictive design features like infinite scrolling or AI chatbots.

But she continued: “Technology is developing so fast. Anybody in this world who thinks that it is one and done will be wrong because the technology is always changing.

“So I’m acutely aware of the need for government – any government – will have to be continually looking at these issues in the years to come because this technology is traveling so fast.

“My objective is to give kids the healthiest possible start online; to protect them from harms and risks; to prepare them for the future because they are going to be on this.”

Ms Kendall spoke to reporters on Monday after giving a speech on artificial intelligence at the Science Museum. She said she wants society to embrace the opportunities tech can bring but admitted she must tackle the public’s fears, including the impact of social media on kids and the AI threat on entry-level jobs.

“We actually want to seize the opportunities of tech and AI and people won’t do it if they think their job’s at risk or their children are at risk, so it is because I can see this massive potential for AI to cure diseases,” she said.

Over the weekend, Ms Kendall launched the Early Careers Jobs Alliance – led by union and AI experts – to understand how entry-level jobs could change due to AI. It will at first focus on digital and tech jobs before expanding to other industrial strategy sectors, with the first report published this autumn.

An AI bootcamp scheme will also be rolled out across England to provide a path to work for young people who are at risk of becoming unemployed and out of education and training.

In a speech at the Science Museum, Ms Kendall admitted young people have the most fears about suffering due to AI. She said: “A clear majority of the public think AI will reduce more jobs than create or enhance them.

“These concerns are particularly acute among young people, with only one in 10 believing the benefits of AI will be shared fairly across society. A key driver of this is the potential impact of AI on early job and career opportunities. Those of us who believe in the immense potential of AI to improve people’s lives must take these concerns seriously.”

After her speech, Ms Kendall added to reporters: “Bottom line is. Talent is everywhere, opportunity is not. I have always believed the only way we succeed as individuals and as families and as a country is if we can draw on the talent of everybody.

“And I will not rest until we break down those barriers to success. AI has got some incredible potential, and I want kids in Wigan and Westminster and Bournemouth and Birmingham and Blackburn to all have these chances to succeed. That is my mission, and I am determined to deliver.”

Dublin star Jack McCaffrey has defended suspended manager Ger Brennan, saying his 12-week ban was ‘overly harsh’

Jack McCaffrey believes former Dublin teammate Ger Brennan only spoke publicly about his 12-week suspension due to ‘a particularly verbose member of the GAA hierarchy’.

Dublin boss Brennan will be permitted to return to his touchline role at Kingspan Breffni on Sunday when the 2023 All-Ireland winners face Cavan in a crucial Round 2B encounter.

Last week, Brennan released a statement via his legal representative addressing various comments made by GAA President Jarlath Burns during media appearances on Tuesday.

Brennan took issue with what he described as ‘insulting’ remarks from Burns regarding the disciplinary process, stating the entire episode had made him feel ‘disenfranchised, undervalued’ and experiencing ‘a lack of belonging to the association’.

At Monday afternoon’s announcement of PTSB’s new sponsorship of the PTSB Dublin club leagues and championships, former Footballer of the Year McCaffrey suggested Brennan conducted himself ‘really admirably’ throughout the ‘overly harsh’ suspension and maintained his silence until he felt forced to respond, reports the Irish Mirror.

“I think Ger has acknowledged and apologised and held his hands up early doors,” McCaffrey observed. “And probably felt that his punishment was overly harsh and pursued his appeals, as far as I could see, quietly. And was unsuccessful in them. And then didn’t say a peep really – until he did. Which I think was prompted by a particularly verbose member of the GAA hierarchy talking about it.

“And I think Ger has every right (to feel aggrieved). He was punished, he accepted his punishment. Why do people still need to keep having a pop off him in the media over it? Sorry, that might be a mischaracterisation of what happened but I do have a huge amount of sympathy for Ger in feeling that he was overly, harshly punished.”

McCaffrey stated he didn’t believe the severe sanction imposed on Brennan, in contrast to the lack of action taken against Donegal manager Jim McGuinness for a relatively similar incident in the Kerry game, represented ‘an anti-Dublin thing’.

“I don’t think it means that everybody should get a 12-week ban, two wrongs don’t make a right in that instance,” McCaffrey remarked, while recalling the 12-week ban handed to his former Dublin teammate Diarmuid Connolly after an incident involving a linesman in 2017.

“I am reminded of an episode when I was playing, when one of our teammates got a 12-week suspension for touching an official, and it just became clear that a lot of people touch officials over the course of a season, from watching games, and yet don’t get 12-week bans.

“So I think that’s a case-by-case thing, it’s not an anti-Dublin thing at all. I’m a firm believer that anyone involved in the GAA at any level is doing it with the best intentions and doesn’t go out to treat anyone unfairly. I’d give everyone the benefit of the doubt there. But I can completely sympathise with Ger feeling very disappointed.”

Dublin are desperately seeking to revive their Championship campaign following consecutive defeats to Leinster rivals Westmeath and Louth. Brennan has been absent from Dublin’s last four matches in total due to a suspension stemming from an incident during their National League clash with Galway on March 22.

“It’s just such a pity really,” said medical doctor McCaffrey, a six-time All-Ireland winner. “And I think Ger has behaved really admirably around the whole thing, in terms of just keeping the head down in so far as he could. And they got on with it as a group.

“I think particularly in a first season when you’re trying to find an identity as a gang with new players and everything like that, I just felt sorry for them having to deal with that. And I think Dean (Rock) in fairness has done a remarkable job. I’m sure he didn’t see himself in that role six months ago, 12 weeks ago even.

“I think they’ll have some regrets over it because it’ll have affected the year, and they’ll just need to kind of look back on it and obviously make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

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Former England winger Theo Walcott says Marcus Rashford is the Three Lions player he is “most psyched about” at the upcoming World Cup.

Rashford was left out of Gareth Southgate’s Euro 2024 squad and did not play for his country for 12 months between March 2024 and 2025.

Re-introduced by Thomas Tuchel, he has featured in every Three Lions squad under the German other than in June 2025 when a hamstring injury ruled him out.

A loan spell at Barcelona, where he scored 14 goals and registered 14 assists in 47 games for the La Liga champions, has revitalised the 28-year-old Manchester United forward’s career.

He started England’s 1-0 friendly win over New Zealand on Saturday and while Tuchel said there were “no hidden messages” within his first-half line-up, Walcott believes Rashford has to start at the World Cup.

“Rashford this year has been outstanding,” Walcott said on The Wayne Rooney Show.

“I’ve watched him quite a lot. I found the love of watching Barcelona again and took more of an interest with Rashford going out there. It’s been great for him.

“He would be a dead cert to start for me. The way he’s played, that freedom, that enjoyment. We want to see that smile.”

Rashford was England’s bright spark in the first half against New Zealand, creating five chances.

“Rashford’s going to be a major part of this tournament,” Walcott added. “I’m looking forward to watching him. Out of all the players, I’m most psyched about him.

“I think he’s brave to go abroad – it’s great when English players go. I wasn’t brave enough, but for him to do that shows good character.”