Prince William returned to work 24 hours on from the crunch Sandringham summit about his brother's royal future and discussed his fears of Aston Villa going down, an FA chief has said.
Wills joined the Queen and Prince Charles at the Norfolk estate yesterday to discuss the decision by Harry and Meghan Markle to 'step back' as senior royals.
Afterwards the Queen said the Royal Family supported Harry and Meghan's wish to start a new life but conceded she'd have preferred them to remain as full-time royals.
Today William stepped in for the Queen at an investiture ceremony, where he knighted former England cricket captain Andrew Strauss and Theresa May's Brexit adviser Olly Robbins.
And the future king, 37, also discussed the fortunes of beloved club Aston Villa with FA bigwig and ex-Manchester United chief executive David Gill.
"I've been lucky enough to meet (William) a few times and talk about football, he was more worried about Aston Villa and how they're going to finish this season," former accountant Mr Gill, 62, said.
"We had a nice chat about football, he's a keen follower of it."
Dean Smith's troubled side languish in 18th place in the Premier League having been thrashed 6-1 on Sunday by Manchester City and are facing a relegation battle.
William has been photographed at Aston Villa games, both home and away, in recent years.
His brother, meanwhile, has concerned his family about revealing he and Meghan intend to "step down" from senior royal duties . They'll now split their time between the UK and Canada.
Following Villa's humiliation to City, odds on their relegation plunged to just 4/6 at some bookies.
But they face relegation rivals Brighton, Watford, Bournemouth and Southampton in the next five weeks.
Speaking previously, Duke of Cambridge said he followed Villa because of their "great history".
"I wanted to have a team that was more mid-table that could give me more emotional rollercoaster moments.
“Aston Villa’s always had a great history. I have got friends of mine who support Aston Villa and one of the first FA Cup games I went to was Bolton v Aston Villa back in 2000. Sadly, Villa went on to lose to Chelsea," the dad-of-three said.
