Scheckter, the Southampton player liaison officer, is the son of the former Formula One driver Jody

Hugo Scheckter’s phone rang twice in the seconds after he sent a Whatsapp message to Southampton’s players and staff to tell them that he was gay. Two of the squad told him how happy they were for him, offered their support and wished him all the best. And then the other messages started.

“I got two asking if Charlie Austin had stolen my phone. I had to record a voice message to prove it was me,” laughs Scheckter, Southampton’s player liaison officer and one of the few men, if not the only one, to have come out to a Premier League dressing room.

The response, rather than being a mixture of the awkward, rude or dismissive many might wrongly expect from a group of footballers,