Sitting next to the 6ft 7in frame of Anthony Joshua for seven hours at Wimbledon left Gary Lineker with leg cramps.
The former Match of the Day host and ex-heavyweight champion of the world were stationed next to one another on day five at the All England Club.
Being upstaged by the boxer in the wardrobe department would not have been the best feeling in the world, but it was nothing compared to the discomfort he would experience on Centre Court due to the limited space he had to endure for several hours as the likes of Taylor Fritz, Carlos Alcaraz and Emma Raducanu appeared on court.
‘[My youngest son and I] sat next to Anthony Joshua and Eddie Hearn and we had a laugh watching some great tennis,’ he said on the Rest is Football podcast.
He continued: ‘I was sitting in the seats next to Anthony, and he’s obviously huge. His legs… and the only way he sits, because there wasn’t enough room, was he had his legs wide open.
‘And I was forced, for like seven hours, whatever it was, to put my legs to the… it got to the stage where I was getting cramp in my inside thigh so badly. And the game was going on and I wanted to shout.
The former Match of the Day host and ex-heavyweight champion of the world were stationed next to one another on day five at the All England Club
Joshua attended the day’s action on Centre Court with promoter Eddie Hearn (right)
Lineker revealed that he didn’t have the b*alls to tell Joshua to move his legs and allow him more room
‘But I never had the b*lls, at any point, to tell him, “Will you f***ing move your legs over a little bit, give me some room?”
‘Absolutely true. But he’s a lovely, lovely guy and I had a laugh with him. And they were great company for the afternoon.’
Lineker beamed broadly as he was seen wandering the grounds ahead of the third rounds beginning in the men’s and women’s singles at Wimbledon. He looked svelte in a navy suit and shades.
His outing came after his latest attack on the BBC during an appearance on stage at Glastonbury – before calling out: ‘Free Palestine.’
The former England football captain, who signed off as Match Of The Day presenter after three decades last month, accused corporation chiefs of having ‘lost their way’.
Gary, quit his role as the BBC’s best paid presenter a year ahead of schedule following his controversial sharing of an online post condemned as anti-Semitic.
He has now suggested that people ‘at the very top of the BBC’ had ‘an agenda’, as he took part in a Q&A session at the music festival staged in Somerset this weekend.
He was speaking during an on-stage conversation with Groove Armada DJ and farming advocate Andy Cato at the Glastonbury event.
Ex-England, Tottenham Hotspur and Barcelona striker Gary, when asked about the BBC for whom he worked for 30 years, said: ‘I think they have lost their way a little bit.’
