Mason Mount admits things could get “heated” when England players face off in big club encounters ahead of Chelsea’s trip to Manchester City on Saturday.
The Blues’ Three Lions star watched as Raheem Sterling and Joe Gomez’s clash in City’s 3-1 loss at Liverpool boiled over in the national-team camp.
And the 20-year-old rising star reckons that it’s all part of the game, with Sterling’s subsequent axing from one Euro 2020 qualifier not ruining the team spirit.
Ahead of the Blues’ trip to Eastlands, Mount was one of three Stamford Bridge starlets in coach Gareth Southgate’s squad, alongside winger Callum Hudson-Odoi and Fikayo Tomori, who made his England debut on Sunday night.
CONTROVERSY: Liverpool's Joe Gomez v Manchester City's Raheem Sterling. Picture: Carl Recine/Reuters.
They will face off against national-team colleagues Sterling, Kyle Walker and John Stones.
And Mount says: “I think it is going to get heated in club games because there are going to be massive games.
“But we [the Three Lions] are very tight as a group, things get sorted out very quickly like they did and then we get focused on the games.
“We go back to our clubs and we are all going to be playing against each other but it has been a very good qualification, we have got some very good wins under our belt and the focus now is on March.”
CALM: England manager Gareth Southgate. Picture: Matthew Childs/Reuters.
Attacking midfielder Mount scored his first international goal on Sunday night in a 4-0 win over Kosovo, becoming the youngest Blues players since Jimmy Greaves to score for England.
It was a big boost for coach Frank Lampard’s protege, who has four Premier League goals already this season.