The England football team narrowly avoided an unusual pitch invasion Friday, when a mole popped up at their Euro 2012 training session in southern Poland.

"He wasn't hit by any stray passes or anything from the players," England team spokesman Stuart Mawhinney told AFP Friday. "He might have been trying to get a good view."

Staff spotted the dark furry animal on the pitch sidelines around Friday noon (1000 GMT) at the Hutnik stadium in Krakow, where England are based during the 16-nation Euro 2012 football championships co-hosted by Poland and Ukraine.

"One of the security guys was able to catch it just with his hands -- gently and humanely -- and release it back into the wild, so hopefully no harm came to him," Mawhinney said.

Mawhinney waved off any fear the animal was a mole for England's next adversary, Italy.

"I think moles are blind aren't they? So it was good for us that he wasn't able to get any tips on tactics to pass onto any of his friends," Mawhinney said.

The incident came a day after the Czech Republic, whose unofficial mascot is a mole, was eliminated from the championships.

Mawhinney said he hoped the animal's appearance was not a bad omen for England.
"I don't know if there's any ominous signs. Hopefully not. You know we're hopeful that on Sunday when we play Italy we can get through to the semi-finals," he said.

The mole became the Czech team's unofficial mascot ahead of its game against Poland, when fans on the Internet framed the rivalry using cartoon characters from each country: Poland's Reksio the dog and the Czech's Krtek the mole.

Fans dressed as moles were spotted at the Warsaw stadium Thursday for the Czech-Portugal match that ended with a 1-0 win for Portugal and cut Czechs out of the running.

The final match of the Euro 2012 showcase, which kicked off June 8 in Warsaw, will take place July 1 in Kiev.