Jack Grealish has admitted he was hungover on his first day of England duty but has no regrets over his party antics following Manchester City’s historic treble.
The 27-year-old was pictured and filmed drinking in the days after Man City won the Champions League after winning both the Premier League and FA Cup.
All of Man City’s players who featured in the 1-0 win over Inter Milan were rested by Gareth Southgate for the win over Malta.
Speaking after his substitute appearance in England’s 7-0 win over North Macedonia, Grealish spoke about his partying for the first time but saw no reason to defend them.
“I don’t think it is a party boy thing,” Grealish insisted. “I would never sit here and lie to you and say ‘Yeah, I don’t drink and I don’t party’ because I do but then there’s so many people that will come here and say to you ‘I don’t do this, I don’t do that’ when they do. I’m just truthful.
“I’m not like that usually but we’ve won the treble and it’s something that will never happen again.
“So I went and enjoyed myself and I wasn’t the only one - I think a lot of the time you’ll see everyone recording me, I could show you all this stuff other people where they were the same.
“That last weekend was probably, well definitely, the best weekend of my life.”
Grealish has just completed a gruelling 12-month season, playing 62 matches for club and country and made sure to stay beyond to answer media questions in a candid, relaxed and engaging fashion.
“I was a bit hungover [when joining the England squad] but I weren’t drunk or anything. I came into camp with the other guys, we slept then woke up and trained Wednesday,” he said.
“We trained Thursday and, like I said, in the back of my mind, I knew I weren’t going to play on the Friday. Then the Saturday, I trained and trained well.
“Then on the Sunday, I thought it was going to be a toss up with who plays. It could have been any of us. Me, Phil [Foden] or Rashy. Obviously it was Rashy and you can’t complain. He’s obviously one of the most in form players in the world.
“My emotions have been so high. When I was sitting in the camp on Thursday, it was the biggest high I’d been on in my whole life at the weekend. You come into the camp, you sit on your own in your room and think ‘will I ever feel that high again?’”
Grealish says last season he doubted his decision to join City but now says he is “living my dream”
“Even last year, you would just sit there and think ‘have I not made the right decision [by joining Man City]?’” he continued. “I’ve not had much game time and I am thinking, ‘am I ever going to be a starter?’
“I come back from the World Cup and I come into the team, I’m one of the main players and then we go and win the Treble. It was so emotional, man.
“I just enjoy myself, I’m living my dream of playing for the best club in the world in my opinion, we’ve just won that one the treble so I’m going to obviously have a break now with my family and my friends and then I’ll be raring to go again in four weeks.”
