England’s lion keeper Chris Smalling lifts the lid on the team mascot

England’s lion keeper Chris Smalling spoke about the squad’s new mascot for the first time today, but his answers about the soft toy only served to deepen the mystery.

Smalling revealed today that he was not injured, despite a media scare yesterday, so in the absence of any other significant news, the possible reasons why the lion hasn’t left Smalling’s side since the Portugal friendly at Wembley dominated this lunchtime’s media conference.

But the England centre-back would not be drawn on why he was looking after it, who decided he should, or which player is likely to be given the responsibility next.

“There’s not too much to say, I think you’ll see a few players carrying it around during the course of the tournament, that’s all I’m going to say,” he said.

But when pushed, all Smalling would say was: “I’m still with it but in a couple of days you’ll see someone else carrying it.”

And on who deserves it next, he said: “Well that’s up to the players.”

Asked if there was a vote on the next person to be told to look after it, Smalling closed the conversation with: “I think that’s enough questions about the lion!”

So we’re none the wiser, but you can expect this surreal game to continue when Joe Hart faces the media tomorrow.

Trivial it may seem, but in a way, it shows us two things: there’s no crisis to talk about at the moment, which is unusual for England, even at this early stage in a tournament.

And it’s also evidence that this squad gets along.

From my experience of past tournaments, that is not a given. Many previous squads have been made up of club cliques, which in turn have inevitably had a corrosive effect on team morale.

A divided group is damaging, whereas you only need to look at Leicester City to see what a collective spirit can achieve.