Harry Maguire has reportedly been given a February 7 retrial date, three years after his conviction for assault and attempted bribery while on holiday in Greece were quashed.
Maguire was arrested while on a family holiday in Mykonos in 2020.
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He was handed a suspended jail sentence of 20 months and 10 days in 2020 after a court in Syros found him guilty of assaulting police, resisting arrest and attempted bribery.
The Manchester United defender’s brother Joe and friend Christopher Sharman were both given 13-month sentences which were suspended for three years.
The high-profile incident made headline news in 2020, and Maguire appealed, which led to the conviction being quashed and a retrial at a higher court.
Maguire’s legal team asked for the retrial to be pushed back from its date at the start of June.
The hearing had already been delayed by the Covid pandemic, and he is not expected to appear in person.
If found guilty again, he won’t be given a more severe punishment.
At the time of the arrest, Maguire was backed by England manager Gareth Southgate and United head coach Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
Speaking to the BBC after the incident, Maguire said: “My initial thought, I thought we were getting kidnapped.
“We got down on our knees, we put our hands in the air, they just started hitting us.
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“They were hitting my leg saying my career’s over: ‘No more football. You won’t play again’.
“And at this point I thought there is no chance these are police or I don’t know who they are so I tried to run away, I was in that much of a panic, fear, scared for my life. All the way through it.”
He added: “It was horrible. It’s not something I ever want to do again. I don’t wish it on anybody. It’s the first time I’ve ever been inside a prison.
“I don’t feel like I owe an apology to anybody. An apology is something when you’ve done something wrong or regret. I regret being in the situation. I play for one of the biggest clubs in the world, I regret putting the fans and the club through this.
“I think it could have happened anywhere. I love Greece, I think us footballers get a bit of stick for trying to stay away from everything. It’s not how I want to live my life.”
