England footballer Jesse Lingard, 26, joked about wanting to “punch” Piers Morgan, 54, during an interview with LADbible. The video, which was shared on the publication’s YouTube channel earlier today, featured the sportsman being asked questions, including: “If you had to punch a famous person, who would you punch?” Barely missing a beat, Jesse replied coolly: “Piers Morgan.”
Laughter could be heard from the crew on set, who were clearly entertained by his answer.
Jesse smiled and let out a slight chuckle.
SPORTbible, part of the LADbible franchise, later shared the clip with their 1.3 million Twitter followers.
Piers clearly saw the tweet appear in his mentions and used Twitter to take a verbal swipe at Jesse in return.
“Mate @JesseLingard – you’re a 5ft 7in, 128lb stick insect with the muscle power of a neutered Poodle,” he wrote, in view of his own 6.6 million followers.
“So maybe cut the Mike Tyson chat, yeah?”
Social media users took to the comments section, with many picking sides in the burgeoning spat.
“Never thought I’d side with Piers,” one tweeted, while another concurred: “For once I agree with Piers.”
However, a third said: “To be fair @JesseLingard is only saying what most of the country think.”
Others joked they were keen to see Piers and Jesse go toe-to-toe, with one chipping in: “Now this I would pay to watch.”
“Piers vs Lingard! Make it happen,” another said.
Jesse has yet to respond to Piers’ tweet.
It’s not the first time the pair have traded jibes on Twitter, after they got into a war of words over Alexis Sanchez’s move to Manchester United at the beginning of 2018.
At the time, Jesse welcomed his future teammate to the squad before the move was completed, uploading a picture of himself pretending to be on the phone and writing: “Hello, is that @Alexis_Sanchez? Welcome to @ManUtd.
“I knew you wanted to come Milly Rock with the mandem,”(sic) he added.
Piers was quick to make a snide remark about the transfer, telling Jesse: “He’s taking your place sunshine, enjoy the bench.”
“‘YO PIERS YOU WANNA COME OUT HERE,’”(sic) Jessie quipped, along with a laughing emoji and a man dancing emoji.