Louis Tomlinson and Sam Thompson FINALLY meet at Soccer Aid training - as One Direction star's girlfriend and TV star's ex Zara McDermott supports her new man
Louis Tomlinson and Sam Thompson have finally come face to face for the first time at Soccer Aid training on Thursday.
The men are both on the same England team for Unicef - the same charity Sam completed a 260-mile five-day long marathon for on Friday.
And while Sam has insisted there are 'no hard feelings', the encounter is bound to sting a little.
Sam, 32, and former Love Islander Zara, 28, confirmed they had ended their relationship in January after more than five years together.
Zara moved on pretty quickly with singer Louis, 33, with the smitten couple appearing inseparable since their romance was made public in March.
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It comes after Sam revealed he will be at Soccer Aid as he shared a new Instagram snap on Thursday after suffering a string of agonising injuries.
The I'm A Celebrity winner posed for a mirror selfie at his home in Chelsea and revealed that he is heading to training ahead of the celebrity charity match on Sunday.
Sam cut a cool figure in a black long sleeved top which he teamed with khaki cargos and white trainers.
The Staying Relevant podcast star was all smiles as he snapped the selfie wearing a white rucksack and a pair of Dinelli sunglasses.
He wrote: 'Off to Soccer Aid! What a 4 days its going to be!'
As Sam made his way out of his home, he beamed for a snap with brother-in-law Ryan Libbey while carrying a large bottle of water to stay hydrated.
Last week, Sam suffered a calf injury on the first day of his gruelling 260-mile Soccer Aid challenge for Unicef.
Despite the TV personality fearing his legs will be the reason he won't be able to take part in the football game and insisting he is doing everything he can, it seems Sam might be able to play some of the game as he heads to training.
Sam feared his legs will be the reason he won't be able to take part in the football game after his challenge last week - but it seems he is all ok to play as he arrived at training
On Tuesday, Sam shared another update, he wrote: 'Trying to get those legs right for soccer aid!! I WILL play a part [laughing face emoji]'
A source later told MailOnline: 'Sam's role is going to remain as a player at Soccer Aid as no official change has been made yet. He is continuing to go training and get further physio.'
Sam is set for an awkward planned encounter with ex Zara McDermott 's new boyfriend Louis Tomlinson at Soccer Aid.
The men will be on the same England team for Unicef - the same charity Sam completed a 260-mile five-day long marathon for on Friday.
And while Sam has insisted there are 'no hard feelings', the encounter is bound to sting a little.
It comes days after Sam gave a heartbreaking update on whether he will be able to play in Soccer Aid after suffering a string of agonising injuries during his charity challenge
Sam and former Love Islander Zara, 28, confirmed they had ended their relationship in January after more than five years together.
Zara moved on pretty quickly with singer Louis, 33, with the smitten couple appearing inseparable since their romance was made public in March.
They have enjoyed a loved-up getaway to Costa Rica together after Louis flew his new flame out to the island first-class.
Meanwhile I'm A Celeb winner Sam has moved on with Love Island beauty Samie Eilshi, 25.
After their blossoming romance was confirmed when they shared a steamy kiss in Mayfair last month, speculation of a split grew after Samie was noticeably absent from Sam's highly-publicised challenge for Soccer Aid last week.
Such rumours have since been squashed however, with their romance reportedly going from strength to strength as they 'love spending time together on their days off', a source close to the couple told MailOnline.
During an episode of their podcast Staying Relevant's last month, Pete Wicks, 37, teased Sam about the prospect of the potentially awkward encounter between him and Louis.
The TOWIE star asked his co-host: 'You're really going through it with the whole f****** body and dieting and training loads. Is that for Soccer Aid?'
Sam laughed and assured he's 'loving it' but 'no, it's not' for the game, to which Pete continued: 'Are you sure it's not for Soccer Aid? How are you feeling? You're playing again. Must be really exciting.'
He added: 'How do you feel about the line up? Do you think you've got a strong team?'
Awkwardly laughing, Sam replied: 'Got a really strong team'.
But, not dropping the subject, Pete then asked: 'Any kind of people in there who you're looking forward to playing with?'
'Loads,' Sam laughed: 'Tom Grennan. I'm really looking forward to playing alongside Wayne Rooney, Tyson Fury's the manager. I can't wait'.
Pete joked: 'I mean that's gonna be f****** amazing. Make sure you get him on side though because you may need him in your corner in case you fall out with anyone. Not that you will but just in case there's any rivalries or anything.
'You know, you have to train together and it's a lot, you know when you're kind of in close quarters with someone like that. All sorts gets brought up. Anyway...'
Sam and Louis will join the likes of Tyson Fury, Jill Scott, Grennan and Paddy McGuinness in the star-studded squad, while Wayne Rooney will step out of retirement as one of the managers.
Sam may now have more time to pursue his romance with Samie, who recently opened up about their relationship for the first time.
Sam first met Samie, who appeared on Love Island in 2023 and returned to the All Stars series this year, through his presenting role on Aftersun.
Samie spoke about the blossoming relationship for the first time during an appearance on the Chloe Mediumship podcast.
The show is hosted by a psychic medium and in the episode, the beauty revealed how she's previously had negative gut feelings in past relationships.
She explained: 'I've had gut feelings with guys before. I've had a couple of relationships where I've known it was never it. Like this is gonna come to an end, I'll have something telling me every day it's coming to an end, this isn't for you.
'You put it to the back of your mind and then you start noticing the chaos increase. It's like the universe saying I'm gonna blow you both up if you just do not separate. Then I'm like if I only I listened all those months ago when I got that first message.'
Then, host Chloe asked: 'Obviously, you don't have to talk about it too much but the guy you're currently speaking to, do you have that gut feeling? Like do you think it's gonna be really good?'
Keeping her cards close to her chest, the former Love Islander replied: 'There's been no bad stuff at the minute so yeah I suppose it is all positive right now. It's early days.'
Zara and Louis sparked relationship speculation at the start of this year before going public in March, three months after MailOnline revealed Zara and ex-boyfriend Sam had parted ways.
Despite his heartache over Zara moving on so quickly, sources close to Sam exclusively told MailOnline at the time he holds no grudges against Louis over the new romance.
A source close to the star said: 'Sam has no hard feelings towards Louis, that's for sure.
'As far as he's concerned, Louis is Zara's new man and he's just got to accept it.
'He's a positive guy and will just move on from this, throwing himself into work and getting stuck into the exciting projects he's got coming up.
'Obviously he was sad when their relationship broke up and, like anyone, when your ex moves so quickly it's tough. And if he was both angry and devastated, that would be understandable.
'But he's not sitting around wallowing in self pity, far from it.'
Zara and Sam were together for five years before they split at the end of 2024 shortly after the Made In Chelsea favourite worked in Australia for I'm A Celeb spinoff show Unpacked.
This year's Soccer Aid for Unicef match airs on the evening of Sunday 15 June on ITV1 and ITVX from Old Trafford, Manchester.
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