England forward Anthony Gordon has promised to do a bike-themed celebration if he scores a goal against Slovakia in their last-16 match at Euro 2024 on Sunday after he crashed his electric bike during a recovery ride at camp this week.
The 23-year-old Newcastle player escaped serious injury, suffering a gash to his chin plus scrapes on his nose, forearm and knuckles, after flying an estimated three metres over his handlebars into gravel. He was wearing a helmet at the time.
A journalist jokingly presented Gordon with a bike helmet and training wheels during his press conference on Thursday.
"I'll put the stabilisers next to the pitch maybe and you lot (the media) will get credit for the celebration," he said when asked about a bike-themed celebration. "I will do it. You've got my word."
Gordon will need more playing time for that to happen. He made his Euro debut as an 89th-minute substitute as England looked for a late winner in their 0-0 group-match draw with Slovenia on Tuesday.
Slovenia defender Erik Janza scored the most powerful goal, opens new tab of Euro 2024 so far at 128.76 kph (80 mph), while Danish midfielder Morten Hjulmand's 28-metre (30.6-yard) strike was the longest, according to an analysis of the group stage.
Janza's goal in a 1-1 draw with Denmark, and Hjulmand's in a similar scoreline against England, helped their nations to reach the knockouts where they will no doubt be hoping to repeat their feats against Portugal and hosts Germany respectively.
The built-in technology of the tournament's Adidas-made "Fussballliebe" (love of football) also showed that Hungary's Kevin Csoboth hit the goal with the most spins in his last-gasp strike against Scotland with a total of 16 rotations.
That was scant consolation, however, for Hungary's narrowly missing out on reaching the knockouts.
Denmark's Hjulmand had the distinction of seeing his stunner from distance also make it into the top 10 hardest-struck goals, according to European soccer body UEFA's analysis of the group stage published on Saturday.
