Jack Grealish looked far removed from the elegant Aston Villa team captain that he is when pictured at the scene of a vehicle collision that involved the winger's Range Rover. The incident happened because the 24-year-old defied the coronavirus lockdown measures and Grealish himself has admitted he was "deeply embarrassed" by his actions.
Good thing for the midfielder, he owned up to his mistake that saw his jeep ramming two parked vehicles in Solihull, Birmingham. Grealish said he made "a stupid mistake" of meeting up with a friend when all in the UK are ordered to stay at home.
Ironically, Grealish called on his followers "to stay at home ... and protect lives," before the accident. It turned out the Aston skipper could not follow through on the words of wisdom he shared online. Metro said Grealish was "deeply embarrassed ... about what happened this weekend."
"I obviously got a call from a friend asking to go round to his and I stupidly agreed to do so. I don't want anyone to make the same mistake I did," the winger said in a video he posted online.
He claimed that following the incident, he has learned his lesson the hard way and vowed that he will be following the rules strictly in the future.
"I hope everyone can accept my apology and we can move on from this and hopefully in the future we can all be out enjoying ourselves again once this has all boiled over," Grealish said.
In a statement, Aston Villa confirmed that the club's team captain was involved in an incident that ignored the government's order to remain locked at home. What happened was described by the team as a disappointment.
"Club Captain Jack Grealish has accepted that his decision to leave his house was wrong and entirely unnecessary. It breached the government guidelines which are clear and should be adhered to by everybody," said the statement said.
Aston Villa gave an assurance that Grealish will be disciplined and fined, and the proceeds will be donated to charity.
However, getting fined should be the least of forthcoming concerns for Grealish, according to Mirror, which added that the Aston winger has a history of running into trouble.
The latest episode though could spell trouble for the star, specifically on the prospect of him joining up with Manchester United in the summer. Grealish is a top signing target for United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer but the player's supposed public misdemeanor could lead to Norwegian to give a second thought on his plan.
It is known that as the top man at Old Trafford, "Solskjaer has stressed how character is just as important as ability," said the report.
The United manager is convinced that players who are in his camp must be role models and with the recent display of unsavory character by Grealish, Solskjaer is likely to do some due diligence on the player before going ahead on the expected big signing.
