Some players silently focus on the game ahead, others exchange brief words with a familiar face in the opposition line-up.
Each has their own pre-game tunnel ritual as they wait to make their way to the pitch before kick-off.
Increasingly, for a host of Premier League players — among them Everton’s Richarlison and Mason Holgate — it is inhaling a mysterious powder in a small ampoule passed along by their team-mate.
TV cameras filmed Holgate doing it before Everton’s home game against Burnley in March. Then on Monday evening, footage from the tunnel showed Richarlison doing the same before facing Crystal Palace.
