Sky Sports News HQ committed one of the cardinal sins of phone interviews on Sunday night.
After the extent of Jack Butland’s injury became clear following England’s win over Germany, the 24-hour sports news channel decided to get in touch with the 23-year-old’s Stoke team-mate Shay Given.
Butland looks set to miss Euro 2016, and the rest of the season, opening up the chance for Given to play the rest of Stoke’s games this season, and feature for the Republic of Ireland in this summer’s tournament.
Today's scan revealed I've fractured my ankle, absolutely devasted! I'll be doing everything I can to get back fit as soon as I can! 👊🏼🙏🏼
— Jack Butland (@JackButland_One) March 27, 2016
What would normally be standard, relatively unremarkable segment on Sky, to fill another few minutes, quickly became something much more.
As the presenter asked his opening question, it quickly became apparent that it was not the Republic of Ireland’s second most-capped player on the other end of the line.
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