So you thought professional footballers only play football and golf? Not so. As our exclusive pictures reveal, the boys in blue are quite at home on a tennis court - at least, that's what they tried to tell Sharon ...

There's nothing to it lads, grins Nige, you just whack the ball hard with this and aim in that general direction, you'll soon get the hang of it. We can tell Vinny's far from convinced by the De Jong school of tennis coaching ...

Hang about, Attilio's played before ... he's alert, holding the racquet correctly, on the balls of his feet waiting to receive serve. Now all he needs is an opponent who can actually serve ...

Pablo's a long way from being able to serve. These tennis balls are so small, so bouncy. And he's just ripped his best jeans into the bargain, bending down to pick one up ... 

What the deuce? The umpire strikes back ... Chappy fancies himself to take charge when they finally get a match going. Apparently he's put his shirt on a De Jong-Kompany victory in the doubles ... 

The omens for a decent match don't look good at all though. Zaba's still practising without a ball, Vinny's thrown his up about 12 feet, and Nigel's technique has just gone to pieces. They'll be easy pickings for some eager youngster ...

And here he is, the champ! Shay Given just won't let that ball get past him, lads, it's in his DNA ...