The trick Balotelli pulled to skip Liverpool training to buy iPhone 6

There was something on the other side of the dressing room at Melwood which caught Mario Balotelli’s eye.

When the Italian striker asked what a team-mate was holding, he was informed it was the new iPhone 6. Balotelli, not yet in possession of Apple’s latest smartphone, was visibly irked according to observers, report the Liverpool Echo.

Moments later he trooped out on to the training field to take part in the warm-up but within minutes he pulled up complaining of discomfort in his hamstring. Staff sent him straight back inside to be checked out by the medics.

When the Liverpool squad returned to the dressing room at the end of the session 90 minutes later, they were surprised by what greeted them.

There was a beaming Balotelli sat in the corner, with a new iPhone 6 in his hand and a few spares boxed up next to him.

One of his minions had been hastily dispatched to do some shopping. The pain in his hamstring had miraculously eased.

It’s one of countless anecdotes which explain why Liverpool were so desperate to get Balotelli out of the door this summer.