Chris Sutton has slammed ‘unprofessional’ and ‘unforgivable’ Kalvin Phillips for returning to Manchester City ‘overweight’ following the World Cup in Qatar as he is being ‘paid tens of thousands of pounds a week’ to be fit and healthy.
The 28-year-old midfielder was part of Gareth Southgate‘s England squad which reached the quarter-finals of the tournament in Qatar.
Phillips was left on the bench for much of the competition with a shoulder injury and was slammed by Man City boss Pep Guardiola for a perceived lack of fitness upon his return.
The player recently admitted that it was difficult to hear Guardiola’s criticisms of his weight following his World Cup campaign and even said the Spaniard’s comments affected his mum.
Speaking on the latest episode of It’s All Kicking Off, Sutton agreed Guardiola could have handled the situation different and avoided bringing the issue into the public domain, but said Phillips was in the wrong for being overweight.
Chris Sutton says it was ‘unprofessional’ and ‘unforgivable’ for Kalvin Phillips to return to the club ‘overweight’ following the World Cup in Qatar
Sutton says Phillips he is being paid tens of thousands of pounds a week to be fit for Guardiola
The midfielder was part of the England squad at the World Cup with England despite an injury
Sutton said Phillips should have been in the best possible physical condition to give him the best chance of ousting Rodri from the team and making an impression on Guardiola.
Sutton said: ‘I really like Kalvin Phillips. He’s come onto Five Live. He’s highly articulate. Things didn’t work out for him at Manchester City.
‘He’s obviously very upset about the public nature of Pep bringing that stuff about being overweight into the public domain. And that’s clearly affected him, affected his family and affected his mum.
‘But I actually think the bigger thing in all this is that he shouldn’t have been overweight. You know, he’s a professional athlete. He signed a contract with Manchester City going up a level to win trophies, to compete with Rodri.
‘He can’t affect what Rodri does as a player. Rodri is a tremendous player. He can’t do anything about that, but what he can do is he can get himself into the best possible physical condition to give him the best chance of ousting Rodri from the team and making an impression on Pep Guardiola.
‘So for any player, and I’m not going to…