Euro 2024 Player Anthony Gordon Shows Up to Practice With e-Bike Injuries, gets Mocked

Anthony Gordon got only 5 minutes on the field in the match against Slovenia, and even that was too much for some England supporters, who resorted to throwing plastic cups in his direction. After the match, Gordon accompanied the other players from the national team on a recovery session that, apparently, including riding e-bikes around their base camp in Blankenhain, Germany.

The next day, Gordon showed up at camp with abrasions on his face, hands, and scrapes to both knees. Reports in the local media say that he was still in a good humor despite the injuries, while officials assured supporters that his injuries weren't serious enough to disqualify him from playing.

Meanwhile, his mates are having a blast at his expense. Defender Marc Geuhi says that he believes this will be Gordon's last time on an e-bike and attributes the fall to his mixing up the brakes. However, he mentions that he wasn't there to actually see Gordon go down.

Neither was defender Ezri Konsa, but he still found the whole thing hilarious. In a separate statement, he also offers a possible explanation for what happened, saying they were riding e-bikes with a powerful motor and a throttle option, and the combination of both might have played a part, as did Gordon's being unfamiliar with the bike.

"I think he pressed the wrong brake because back in England the brakes are on different sides, so the left is the back," Konsa adds. "I think he pressed the left and it was the front and he just took off. He’s fine."

Konsa says the entire team promised Gordon a bike-themed party if he scores in the next match, against Slovakia.

With assurances that the injuries aren't serious, there isn't a single word about the kind of e-bike Gordon was riding at the time. Last week, the official X account of the national team posted photos of what a recovery session looks like for the Three Lions, showing them riding around the countryside on bikes from KTM Bike Industries, supplied by sponsor Bikestore Knabe.

The bikes in question seem to belong to the pure eMTB Macina family, comprised of models packing Bosch Performance CX Gen.4 motors limited to the EU standard speed of 25 kph (15.5 mph) but with an output of 85 Nm of torque. Usually, a city bike will have half or even less than half the torque, even on models that allow unlocking of the motor to higher speeds, with or without a throttle shifter.

In other words, this is a specialized machine where even the smallest error will cost you. As Konsa said, it's a good thing Gordon had his helmet on at the time.