by Lee Hurley

Jack Wilshere and cigarettes, are we still talking about this?

It seems so.

Away on international duty with England you’d think the media would rather speak about actual football, but a young man choosing to smoke a couple of cigarettes and some faux outrage sells far more papers (or generates more clicks) so we’ll just talk about that instead.

Asked at the pre-game press conference what his biggest regret was, Jack replied “I’ll answer it, but I need to think.”

He waited a moment and then continued “It’s tough, tough. Probably being caught smoking because I’ve said it before and some people don’t believe me, but I’m not a smoker. I don’t smoke. It was a mistake I made on a night out. I definitely regret it. I made the same mistake twice. I’m not a smoker. So it’s probably that one.”

Interesting how more has been made of Jack smoking, an action that hurt no-one but himself than the nasty, late tackle by Manchester United’s Paddy McNair which went unpunished and left Jack needing two operations and months on the sidelines.

You never hear that mentioned.

Priorities, eh?