By There have been many unexpected moments in this World Cup, but the sight of Harry Kane warming up for the biggest game of his big-chinned life so far by attempting to stop Dele Alli murdering Fabian Delph with a rubber chicken is up there with the time Isco saved a tiny bird from being trampled by Sergio Busquets.
England's last training session at their base in Repino centred around a slightly opaque spin-off of tag/tig/tick/you're it/insert your regional variation here, but with rubber chickens. It's unclear yet whether Southgate's backroom staff intend to save the planned custard pie gauntlet for tomorrow's morning session or to use it as a warm-down.
Either way, Harry Kane is having a whale of a time.
You can almost hear his hyuk-hyuk-hyuking from here. It's remarkable, isn't it, that at any other World Cup in the last 50 years, these pictures would have been reserved for use after the turgid second round defeat with headlines like "YOU BUNCH OF CHICKENS" or "CLUCKING EMBARRASSMENT" or "FEATHER DUST-UP" or "FLAP OF DISHONOUR" or "WHICH CAME FIRST: THE RUBBER CHICKEN OR THE CHRONIC UNDERFUNDING OF GRASSROOTS FOOTBALL". Yet now, on these broad sunlit uplands, it's just a bit of a laugh, another symbol of everything that's gone right.
You could draw a thought bubble from Jones's head to the chicken there. Let's have a quick closer look at England's potential matchwinner.
Majestic. Get the BBC to set it to Nessun Dorma for a post-match montage.
