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Football London
Football London
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Kieran Horn

What Arsenal star Bukayo Saka did to leave Tottenham's Eric Dier in stitches on England duty

Arsenal star Bukayo Saka has seen his new favourite hobby of testing his England teammates on their spelling go to the next level in the latest Three Lions camp. At the Qatar World Cup, Saka proved to many he was quite the spelling connoisseur with several videos of the winger getting Jack Grealish, Marcus Rashford and Declan Rice to spell words going viral.

Now back in England camp, James Maddison and Eric Dier took part in a version of popular Channel 4 show Countdown. Saka, because of his spelling expertise, took on the usual role of Susie Dent who checks to see if the words spelt by the contestants are actual words in the Oxford English dictionary.

In the first round of the show, Maddison and Dier proved why they are professional footballers and not lexicon experts. From the letters 'T, H, I, A, M, I, N, E, D' the words 'meat' and 'heat' were made by Maddison and Dier, respectively.

READ MORE: Aaron Ramsdale reveals the two main reasons for Arsenal's huge improvement this season

Saka then went on to prove to the players there was a simple eight-letter word they missed in Thiamine, a water-soluble B vitamin. Unfortunately for Saka, his pronunciation of the word was quickly corrected by Rachel Riley.

Upon her comment, Dier immediately broke into laughter while Maddison quipped, "how do you say it, Bukayo?" With Saka left feeling embarrassed, Riley quickly tried to shift the narrative by asking Saka about the importance of those vitamins to a footballer.

Saka replied: "Yeah, it's important. That's why I expected them to know." However, Maddison ensured no one forgot about Saka's pronunciation again asking the Gunners star how he said the word.

Saka will undoubtedly be hoping for better fortunes on the pitch when England face a Euro 2020 final repeat against Italy at Wembley tonight (Thursday). The Hale End graduate was one of England's best performers in Qatar and has likely nailed down a starting spot in Gareth Southgate's chosen XI.

Meanwhile, Harry Kane will be hoping to become England's all-time top scorer as he is expected to lead the line. On the opposite wing to Saka, Southgate is without Raheem Sterling and Marcus Rashford through injury which likely means a spot for Phil Foden. That same front three that took to the field against Senegal in the World Cup last-16 will likely line up against the reigning European champions.

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