England coach defends Ferdinand omission

England manager Roy Hodgson defended his decision on Saturday to omit ex-skipper Rio Ferdinand from the national football team.

In what was only two days prior to England’s first match against France at Euro 2012, Hodgson risked upsetting his squad and consequently ruining the team’s campaign towards winning the tournament. It was only a week ago that the England manager declared that Liverpool right back Martin Kelly would get the nod ahead of Ferdinand for a place in the title-challenging team; Chelsea’s Gary Cahill was ruled out because of a fractured jaw.

According to an off-camera briefing, the reason into choosing the inexperienced Kelly was down to a pure simple factor…“Ferdinand (for him) is not a player you call up as a substitute,” Hodgson was quoted as saying in the Guardian on Saturday.

“We turned to Martin Kelly because I knew he was going to be someone who would be very useful to us. He's very happy to be here knowing that his chances of playing a big part in the tournament are quite small. You don’t turn to people like Rio Ferdinand for that.”

Hodgson’s motif for not selecting Ferdinand was because he would not claim a place in the starting 11, something a player of the Manchester United man’s stature and experience would no doubt find hard to realize.

The 33-year-old Ferdinand now believes his time playing for his country is finished.

“You would have to say it might be over with England for me. If I’m not getting picked now, especially when people are out injured, then it's unlikely I will be picked again,” he was quoted as saying in the Guardian.

Meanwhile, Hodgson wanted to replace the injured Cahill for Tottenham and Professional Footballers’ Association Young Player of the Year, Kyle Walker. The young right back who was on blistering form last season, was on course to claiming a starting lineup birth in the England first team, before unluckily injuring himself. Hodgson was awaiting a response from the medical team confirming if Walker had recovered from the injury, before being told he would not be fit enough.

“My first thought was actually not Martin Kelly but Kyle Walker because he was one of the original players we'd thought about and, if his toe [injury] had cleared up, he would have been a competitor for Glen Johnson at right back. That ended up being an easy decision. The difficult decision was whether to take Rio in the original 23 or not. That took a lot of soul-searching,” the manager said.

Hodgson also went on to say that Ferdinand was never competing with Kelly for the final spot.

“People think I looked at two players when Gary Cahill was injured – Martin Kelly and Rio Ferdinand – and chose Martin Kelly, but there was never any question of that,” said Hodgson.

England faces a stern test in the group stages of Euro 2012 against France on Monday.


(Additional writing by Matthew Bolton)