It was getting towards the end of the questions when a hand went up at the back and it became clear one of Harry Maguire’s teammates had snuck into the press conference room to ask, one Yorkshireman to the other, something out of left-field. “It’s Jamie Vardy here from Vardy News,” he wanted to know, holding up his clenched fist as a pretend microphone. “Just how big is the diameter of your head?”
The press conference ended there and then but Maguire – or “Slabhead” as Vardy has rather unflatteringly christened him at Leicester City – was smiling as he left and, if nothing else, it left the impression that England have a happy camp. Banter, leg-pulling, mickey‑taking – call it what you will – there has been plenty of it here. And it can be pretty merciless, to say the least.
Not that Maguire – 6ft 4in, Sheffield-raised and as broad as the man on the door of your local Wetherspoons – gives the impression he needs much looking after when he starts telling the stories of his rucks with Gary Madine, the most physical opponent he reckons he ever faced in the lower leagues, and the trips to Carlisle and Yeovil, to name but two, where the idea of playing in a World Cup would have seemed fanciful, at best.
One theory about Sunday’s game against Panama is they will try to rough up Gareth Southgate’s players. As such, Maguire must be a reassuring presence, with the kind of broken nose that offers a few clues about his trade as a centre-half who has played his way up from the lower divisions, via Sheffield United and Hull City (plus Wigan Athletic on loan).
Maguire is a “big lad who can handle himself in a battle”, to use his own description, and hopes to put that to use in Nizhny Novgorod on Sunday. For starters, England spent part of Friday’s training session practising how to deal with Panama’s long throw-ins and making sure they will be better prepared for that tactic than Roy Hodgson’s side were against Iceland in Euro 2016. Plus Maguire showed with the key header before Harry Kane’s stoppage-time winner against Tunisia that a defender his size can be useful in the opposition area. “It’s a big weapon,” he says. “If you look at the goals scored so far in this tournament, it is incredible: over 50% have been from set plays. It’s been a big part of the tournament.”
Ultimately, though, Maguire, 25, is in the team because Southgate wants his centre-halves to play out from the back and he has shown himself to be highly competent with the ball at his feet. Maguire has been selected despite Gary Cahill’s improved form at the end of the season and, as Southgate noted after the Tunisia victory, the Leicester defender has fitted in seamlessly bearing in mind he is the only outfield player in the team who is not playing in the Champions League or top-of-the-table encounters.
“It’s all new to me, like Gareth Southgate said,” Maguire agrees. “I’ve never played the top‑pressure games – the cup finals, the Champions League nights – but Gareth has shown great faith and trust in me, which I’m really thankful for.
“To be part of the starting XI was a really proud moment. It was a great experience. For me, it was a high-pressure game and I can take great belief from that. I will definitely keep my shirt and get it framed when I get home. It will be going up on my wall somewhere in the house.”
Maguire has become the first Leicester player to appear in a World Cup for England since Gordon Banks in 1966. The game on Sunday will provide his seventh cap and his impressions of the tournament so far are that England are entitled to think positively. “I haven’t seen a team create as many clear-cut chances as we created in that [Tunisia] game,” he says. “We’ve set ourselves up now in the group to go on [to qualify] and really kick on.”
In the process, Southgate appears to have settled on a defence made up exclusively of Yorkshiremen, with Kyle Walker on the right of the three‑man line, John Stones operating centrally and Maguire to the left. Plus, of course, back-up options in the form of Danny Rose, from Doncaster, and Fabian Delph, born in Bradford.
“There are quite a lot of Yorkshire lads in the squad and – maybe it’s just a coincidence – they tend to be defenders or defensive midfielders,” is Maguire’s take. “It must be something about the culture of the area.”
He appears to have forgotten someone, albeit a player who operates a lot higher up the pitch. But then a hand goes up at the back and it is time for Vardy News, in another Sheffield accent, to go live.