Jermaine Pennant has opened up about his "savage" punch-up with politician Matt Hancock on the popular Channel 4 show Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins.
The former Arsenal, Liverpool and Stoke City winger will be put through his paces by chief instructor Mark "Billy" Billingham and his team in the coming weeks.
He will take on a number of gruelling military-style challenges alongside his fellow celebrities, including former professional rugby player Gareth Thomas.
And in the latest episode on Channel 4, a nervous Pennant was thrown into the deep end by Billingham and Jason "Foxy" Fox when he was pitted against politician Hancock in the military training exercise of milling.
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For context, milling is a training activity in the British airborne infantry where two opponents punch each other in the head as aggressively as possible without evasion.
Pennant has since spoke about the scrap with Hancock, who served as Secretary of State for Health and Social Care for three years.
Speaking to talkSPORT, he said: "It’s called milling. It’s where you put your boxing gloves on and your hat and you have a box and I fought Matt Hancock.
“We’re not named, we're just numbers so they shouted out my number and they shouted out Matt’s and as I was getting ready I was thinking the nation is going to be seeing this, do not lose.”
He added: “[I told myself] do not put it on the canvas. All you’ve got to do is just beat Matt Hancock and you’ll be a national hero."
Pennant also said he was "very grateful" that he won to save face, although Hancock did put up a good fight, as you can see in the footage above.
Chief instructor Mark "Billy" Billingham, who is a former SAS operator, made his feelings clear about Hancock's appearance on the show.
"He gave it 100% , he got stuck in. The only thing is, he's a typical politician, won't give a straight answer," Billingham said. "It took a while to dig into him, to get to the bottom of him and got quite annoying at times."
He added: ""He got pushed through his paces and anytime he showed any attitude or any sort of fight back he really got pushed back."
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Topics: Liverpool, Stoke City, Birmingham City, Premier League
Jack Kenmare