José Mourinho sensationally paused to remove a voice scrambler midway through distancing himself from threatening 3am phone calls made to Roberto Martínez, we can reveal.

The Manchester United manager was categorically denying having made menacing late-night calls to the Belgium boss when he stopped to take off the elaborate Bane-style contraption.

He said: “Was I phoning Roberto telling him not to pick Romelu [Lukaku for tonight’s game against Cyprus]? No, this was not me.

“Has anyone got a cough sweet? My voice sounds a bit funny today, I sink maybe I’m coming down with sumsing.

“Hmm, now I have a cough sweet but I can’t seem to get it into my mouth. It feels like there is sumsing in the way.

“Oh crap. Um, please to be excusing me for a moment.”

Martínez has since confirmed that he has taken receipt of a follow-up call telling him he has “nussing to worry about”.