‘We’re in trouble here’ – James Milner recalls kidnap fear while representing England at Brazil World Cup in 2014

Liverpool’s James Milner has revealed he once feared getting kidnapped while on England duty at the World Cup.

Milner, who has 61 caps for the Three Lions, recalled the story from the 2014 tournament in Brazil to former team-mate Ben Foster for Amazon Prime Video.

The 36-year-old explained how he and another England ace Phil Jagielka were followed by a group of men after a round of golf but managed a lucky escape in the end.

“We went for a round of golf,” Milner said. “And we couldn’t quite get the holes in and I think we were in the middle of the back nine and the hotel was literally there, you could see it.

“So you’ve gone off and I think the car was going to come back for us. I said to the guy, ‘we’ll leave the buggies here and then we’ll just walk back’.

“Obviously we have been told you can’t really leave the hotel. So we have come out the gate and the gate has shut behind us.

“We’re walking down the street and we’ve turned around and there is a group of guys. We’re glancing and we’re walking a bit quicker and they’re walking a bit quicker.

“Then they start jogging, so we start running and we’re like, ‘we’re in trouble here.’ So we start sprinting, we can out-run them.

“So we’re running down and the next thing, a car pulls up next to us. So I’m like, we’re getting kidnapped here, it’s game over.

“The door slides open, mid-run and it’s the boys, the security and it’s ‘quick, get in!’ We jumped in, on the move, back to the hotel.”

Milner featured just once for England at the tournament, a 0-0 draw against Costa Rica as Roy Hodgson’s side crashed out in the group stage.

He made his last appearance for England at the 2016 European Championships in a 1-1 draw against Russia.