Steve McManaman has revealed that the atmosphere in the England team hotel was "relaxed" after Joe Gomez and Raheem Sterling's bust-up.
Manchester City winger Sterling lost his temper with Liverpool defender Joe Gomez last Monday as the pair teamed up with the Three Lions the day after they had gone head-to-head in a crunch Premier League match.
Sterling allegedly attempted to grab Gomez's throat before England players intervened.
Sterling was prevented from playing in the Euro 2020 qualifier against Montenegro, although return in Kosovo, while Gomez sported a scratch under his eye in training the next day.
But Liverpool and Real Madrid legend McManaman, who was in the vicinity when it happened, thinks the altercation was blown out of proportion and that type of incident occurs regularly in football dressing rooms.
“To be honest, there are always clashes in training - when you live and play football every single day, there’s always heated incidents on the training ground," McManaman told Horseracing.net.
“When the intensity is high and people are playing for places, you may get away with a tackle or a pull of the shirt and people get frustrated, it happens all the time.
“To me it was nothing; it was over in 10 seconds, both the players were fine and I was actually there on the day it happened at the hotel and it was quite relaxed afterwards.”
Gomez was booed by England fans at Wembley against Montenegro - and McManaman was unhappy with the response to the innocent party and thinks Jurgen Klopp should start him for the Reds against Crystal Palace at the weekend.
The ex-midfielder said: “I thought it was absolutely ridiculous what happened with Joe Gomez being booed at Wembley, but that is just part of what happens when a story gets out - people start taking one side or the other.
"In the world we live in now, it’s physically impossible to keep anything quiet anymore, and I think that’s the sad thing about it.
I don’t think Jurgen Klopp necessarily has to give him any backing by starting him against Crystal Palace on Saturday. I think if everyone is fit, he will probably go with the team that beat Manchester City, and if Joe plays it will be because he is a fantastic player - that’s all.”
