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Why Has Danny Rose Cut Up His Socks While Playing For England?

Why Has Danny Rose Cut Up His Socks While Playing For England?

England have finished the World Cup in fourth place, but fans still have plenty of questions

Mike Wood

Mike Wood

England's World Cup campaign has come to a close with defeat to Belgium in the third place play-off, leaving plenty of questions to be asked about Gareth Southgate's team.

Is Jesse Lingard actually any good? What made Jamie Vardy have a party? What do people have against Raheem Sterling, anyway? And can we call the team 'heroes'?

Sometimes, however, the football experts themselves are even stumped, as we have seen this afternoon as people found themselves all in a tizz over arguably the biggest brain-teaser of the entire tournament - just why are Danny Rose's socks all cut up?

The answer is surprisingly simple. Danny Rose and Kyle Walker - who also wears cut-up socks - aren't making a fashion statement, they're protecting their legs from cramp.

See, those footy socks can get very tight - as anyone who has worn football socks is already well aware - and some of the players think that releasing the tension can help them avoiding cramping up towards the end of the game.

PA

Football, to steal a line from Al Pacino (talking about American football, admittedly) in the classic movie Any Given Sunday, is 'a game of inches', and if you can nick an inch here and there by taking a pair of scissors to your socks, then go for it.

Danny Rose is far from the first to take up this tactic: Kyle Walker has been doing it for ages, and actually was reported as having done iso while playing for Manchester City in the Premier League a few months back.

Arthur Masuaku, the West Ham United defender, has also been spotted doing it, as has Ezequiel Garay, the Valencia defender.

PA

In fact, almost all of those who have been seen to cut their socks have been defenders and the vast majority of those have been full backs.

As full backs tend to do the most running of anyone on the field - or at least, the most sprinting - then perhaps they know the most about fatigue and cramp.

So leave them to it. They can cut their socks if they want to.

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: SPORT, UK News, Russia 2018, Interesting, England, World Cup