Dubai: It seems Jamie Vardy is better at scoring goals than arranging a wedding.
The Leicester City and England striker is finally getting married on Wednesday after three previous attempts to wed fiancée Rebekah Nicholson - in June 2015 and then twice this year - were aborted because dates wound up clashing with international duty.
However the wedding is not going to be a full family occasion as Vardy’s mother and step-father will not be attending.
Lisa and Philip Vardy have voiced their disapproval at their son’s choice of bride, who they think is far too risqué and brash. Nicholson, 34, makes regular appearances in glossy magazines wearing very little, and has already been married once before when she was teenager.
She went on to have two children with two other men before finally meeting the Leicester City striker.
Stepfather Philip told the Daily Mail newspaper that the row has been going on ever since Nicholson 'came on the scene'.
“I don't have anything directly to do with my son any more. It's a shame and very sad,” he said.
“I have given him 22 years of life to get him to the pinnacle of his career, and I can't enjoy it. I don't have anything to do with him anymore and it really upsets me.”
Vardy's mother Lisa said: “I'll never say anything about my son, good or bad. I'm not bothered. I get up, go to work and look after my family. I'll not go to the fancy wedding.”
Family squabbles aside, the show must go on.
Vardy will briefly leave the England squad that is preparing for the upcoming European Championship in France, and is missing the warm-up match against Australia on Friday - even though he said he'd be prepared to play in that game.
"There is no honeymoon. I'll have to take that next year some time," Vardy said.
"It will be a very quiet night on Wednesday. Obviously I hope all the guests have a good time but I will have a quiet one. I've not got a curfew but at the end of the day, I'm a professional and understand what has to be done so will be making sure I get plenty of sleep ready to come back in."
England coach Roy Hodgson was happy to give Vardy time off.
"I'm really not concerned. I hope he will be sensible and I believe he will be sensible," Hodgson said. "I know he really is desperate to be selected to go to the Euros and do a good job so I'm pretty confident when I see him on Saturday morning he will be fine.
"I'd have liked him to have rescheduled [the wedding] for a bit earlier, or a lot later, than he has done. The reasons for that, I don't know, but I could guess he probably thought he would get a week to 10 days off at the end of the season, because that is what we have done traditionally."
Vardy is coming off a breakthrough season in which he scored 24 Premier League goals to help Leicester become the most unlikely English champion in years. He has taken his club form onto the international stage, too, scoring in his last three England games - most recently the late winner in a 2-1 victory over Turkey on Sunday.
"I don't really get nervous [in games], it's strange," Vardy said. "But I will probably be nervous when I'm stood at end of the aisle and she's still not turned up yet."
Vardy said he is still pinching himself at his rise to stardom. Four seasons ago, he was playing non-league football and now he is one of the biggest names in the English game and about to feature in his first major tournament.
His career is even set to be depicted in a Hollywood movie.
"That's starting in 2017," he said. "It's very interesting."
