Vardy contemplated passing story tip to Sky journalist, Wagatha case told

REBEKAH VARDY said it was a bit of harmless gossip" when she contemplated passing a tip to a reporter about her husband's teammate Riyad Mahrez going on strike, the High Court was told.

- Tristan Kirk

Messages aired at the “Wagatha Christie" trial show Vardy, the wife of Leicester striker Jamie Vardy, told her agent Caroline Watt that Mahrez had not turned up for training at Leicester in February 2018 while trying to force through a move to Manchester City, adding: “Lads are fuming."

She is then accused of agreeing to Ms Watt's suggestion that the information could be passed to a Sky Sports News reporter, with the caveat "Just don't want it coming back on me".

Asked about the incident and accused of breaking the trust of Leicester and her husband, Vardy called the messages "speculation" and "gossip".

“It doesn't look good”, she told the High Court. “I was gossiping about things already in the public domain and the press were camped outside the training ground, taking pictures of players going in and out.

“It was an interesting story, pretty much unheard of for a player to go on strike and not turn up when he was contracted for training."