The pair were so inseparable that they conducted a joint interview in 2014,joshing about their shared meals of steak,egg and chips,plus the practical jokes they would play on Ryan Sidebottom.
Rafiq,while attesting to Root’s quality of character,said pointedly:“I found it hurtful,because Rooty was Gary’s housemate and had been involved in a lot of the socialising where I was called a ‘P---‘. It shows how normal it was that even a good man like him doesn’t see it for what it was.’” The comments that Root simply shrugged off,he explained,were ones that still cut him to the core.