International breaks are evidence that time does indeed pass more slowly when you’re not enjoying yourself, says Professor Stephen Hawking.

The A Brief History of Time star, 75, has identified the fortnight-long intervals from club football as proof positive of the old idiom ‘time flies when you’re having fun’.

He told Football Burp: “If you’re Danish then it’s probably already Saturday, but for almost everyone else we’re still stuck on Thursday.

“I have watched with fascination and wonder as a succession of dour nil-nils worked to slow down the very mechanics of time that propel us all towards our inevitable oblivion.

“One can only conclude that, by suspending all club football indefinitely, humankind could live for many more hundreds of years than we know to be possible.

“It’s really blown my mind, to be honest. Hats off to Gareth Southgate – Nobel Prize going his way, I reckon.”