England opener Zak Crawley suggested he had no knowledge of comments from captain Ben Stokes regarding the dressing room as no place for "those lacking fortitude".
The all-rounder delivered those words in several conversations following his team's loss in the second Ashes against Australia earlier this month.
In the lead-up to the third Test, where England now face defeat with a match to spare, Stokes noted he had allowed his message to "circulate freely" among the playing group.
"I have completed all the talking in recent days that I required," said the England leader.
But, after the opener scored a knock of 85 on the penultimate day in Adelaide, he commented: "I didn't see that."
"I didn't see and wasn't really looking out for it. We take everything that is said in the press with a pinch of salt," Crawley continued.
Raw Conversations and Consistent Messaging
Stokes made the "weak men" comment subsequent to his side suffered a loss in the second Test to go two matches behind.
The England squad afterwards went on a holiday to a Queensland resort between the second and third matches.
Prior to the Adelaide contest, Stokes said his players had held "raw" conversations and he had urged them to "show a bit of dog" in their effort to stay in contention in the series.
Yet, the Kent batsman stated the messaging from Stokes and head coach McCullum had stayed in line with their previous three years in leadership.
"It's been very positive, unchanged," noted the opener. "It's on maintaining positivity, play our way, with great liberty. We believed we could do an extraordinary feat going into this game."
The Hosts On the Verge of Rapid Series Victory
The opener's wicket on day four came during a decisive three-wicket burst by Australian spinner Lyon.
The spinner's three wickets in 20 deliveries – including the wickets of Brook and Ben Stokes – left the chasing side 207-6 chasing a notional target of 435 runs.
This means, the home team require four wickets on Sunday's final day to move to an insurmountable 3-0 lead with three Tests.
Defeat will extend England's winless run in Australia to 18 Tests and condemn them to a fourth successive overseas Ashes defeat.
The current battle is set to be decided in just eleven days of play – after England fell the initial matches in two and four days respectively.
The last time 1921, when the Australians sealed a series win in England in eight days, has the destination of the urn been determined more swiftly. Australia have also triumphed in 11 days on two other instances in the modern era.
"This is disappointing," said Crawley. "Our goal was to regain the Ashes and now we are staring down the barrel now."
"There will still be plenty to play for and we will certainly approach it with that mindset," he continued.
"The challenge has been tough. Australia is a formidable team. It was inevitably tough coming here to face them. They entered as the favourites and have demonstrated their quality."
Pope's Place Under Scrutiny
While Crawley's innings in the third Test probably answers doubts about his short-term place in the side, Pope appears under immense pressure for his spot in the Melbourne Test starting December 26th.
Pope was out for 17 runs in the team's second innings on Saturday, extending his modest returns against Australia.
Across 16 Ashes innings, Pope has failed to score a half-century and boasts an average of 17.62.
A solitary other English batsman since 1900 – Amiss – has featured as many times in the top six in Ashes Tests and recorded a lower average.
However, Crawley said any suggestion his teammate is under the microscope originates with "the media" – meaning the press – "and not within the team."
"We all know how good of a player he is," added he. "He has had a productive year to be frank."
"He has produced several excellent innings. It is talk from the outside. There's no chat like that on Ollie amongst the players," he concluded.
