Kyle Walker has defended his heated outburst against AC Milan teammate Joao Felix.
The 34-year-old English international made headlines after he was spotted giving Chelsea flop Felix a dressing down at half-time while Milan were trailing 2-0 to Napoli last month.
Walker told Felix to ‘pass the ball’, adding ‘we are not Messi’ as the Milan players trudged out of the dressing room for the second half.
Felix was substituted just 10 minutes later as Milan went on to lose 2-1 to the second placed side.
Walker doubled down on his comments, claiming he wouldn’t have ‘changed anything I did say’, adding that Felix agreed with him.
‘It wasn’t me saying to Joao “you’re not Messi, pass the ball” It was saying “let’s make sure we have a process.” He agreed with me and said we need to have more passes and a bit more control,’ he told BBC’s The Kyle Walker Podcast.
Walker told Felix to ‘pass the ball’, adding ‘we are not Messi’ during Milan’s defeat to Napoli
Walker doubled down on his comments, claiming he wouldn’t have changed anything he said
Kyle Walker, who has made 95 appearances for England, joined AC Milan on loan in January
‘I didn’t just say it to Joao. I didn’t know there was a camera there. But I still wouldn’t have changed anything I did say.’
Walker, who joined AC Milan on loan in January after a seven-and-a-half year stay at Manchester City, added: ‘The comment I said was nobody is Messi.
‘That’s in every team in the world bar certain individuals who can turn a game on its head when they want to.
‘I give them their plaudits – it’s Kylian Mbappe, Vinicius Jr, Mo Salah and Ousmane Dembele, who has been on fire since the start of the year.
‘Apart from that you say it’s a team game.’
Walker hit the ground running in Italy with three unbeaten results from his first three starts.
He has featured 12 times in all competitions for the Rossoneri but is currently sidelined after undergoing surgery on a fractured elbow.
His transfer came with an option to buy and Milan are hoping it will take a fee of up just £1.7m to secure his services permanently.
Milan have endured a disappointing league campaign under Portuguese boss Sergio Conceicao.
AC Milan secured their place in the Copa Italia final with a 3-0 win over Inter last night
They sit in ninth place, 20 points behind their arch-rivals and leaders Inter Milan and crashed out of the Champions League to Dutch side Feyenoords in February.
However, they secured their place in the Copa Italia final with a thumping 3-0 win over Inter last night.
Felix, who also joined Milan on loan in January, is yet to score in ten league games.
Meanwhile, Walker was full of praise for teammate Rafael Leao.
The former Spurs defender said: ‘What I was saying to Joao is Leao is fantastic. One of the players who you can give him the ball and he can go past three, four, five players and put it in the top bin.
‘At [Manchester] City most of our joy over the last number of years was from a process. Everything was the process of working out where you were on the pitch. That was with passes.
‘If you have a player like Messi he can take on four players and put it in the back of the net. It makes the game so much easier.
‘But against good-level opposition like Napoli I feel you need a process of passing the ball and wearing them down. Then the gaps appear. That was the conversation with Joao.’
