The judge at Harry Kewell’s High Court libel case against former England striker Gary Lineker and the Sunday Telegraph newspaper hass discharged the jury after they were unable to reach a verdict.

Kewell took libel action following comments by Lineker over his move to Liverpool in 2003.

There was no immediate decision on a re-trial or allocation of costs, estimated at £200,000.

“It’s in our hands because we are bringing this claim,” Kewell’s lawyer Chris Farnell told Sky Sports News.

“I need to sit down with Harry and see what he wants to do.”

Asked if Kewell was disappointed with the verdict, Farnell added: “He has to take time to think in relation to that. I didn’t get a reaction from him in that sense at all.

“I think we have a very strong case but it’s up to Harry to decide which way we go.”

Lineker told reporters he was surprised by the decision.

“It looks as if it could be a replay,” he said. “But I can’t say anything else because we don’t know what is happening.”

Lineker branded Kewell’s transfer “murky” in court.

He said: “It was quite clearly a murky transfer. It was not transparent and everything that I have subsequently learned about it has made it murkier and murkier.”