Sterling decides to opt out of England starting eleven

Sterling decides to opt out of England starting eleven

In a growing debate, whether Hodgson should let players decide their starting spot and let their selection in the international squad taken for granted after Liverpool's Raheem Sterling opted out of the game, after expressing his fatigue to coach Roy in a training session prior to the Estonia game.

Hodgson revealed: “Raheem had done the warm-up and he came to me and said ‘Look I really am feeling a bit tired I am not in my best form at the moment’. So I said, ‘The best thing is Adam Lallana starts the game and you rest and I have got you to bring on from the bench’, simple as that. As you saw when he came on there is nothing wrong with him and he isn’t suffering from anything"

Roy Hodgson criticized by Jamie Redknapp and Jamie Carragher after making public Raheem Sterling's admission of fatigue before England's Euro qualifier with Estonia.

The former player where, astonished with the fact that Sterling refused to start and Hodgson made the discussion between him and the player public.

Redknapp said: 'I would never have dreamed of saying that [I'm too
tired] to an England manager, but then I picked up a lot of injuries.
'I'm sure Brendan Rodgers would have been leaning on him,
[saying] you need a break and this is an opportunity to get one.
'Why on earth did Hodgson say it though? Honesty is not the best
policy. Why has Roy got into this? He could have said 'I want to
freshen this up.' This wouldn't even be a conversation.'

Carragher agreed that discretion would have been a better idea: 'Me
as a player, I would never give a manager a chance to leave me out.
'But keep it between yourselves, just come out and say Lallana
played well last game and say Raheem needs a rest. But now we are
having a debate on it.

'Hodgson could have been more careful, but I don't think Rodgers
would have been involved.'

But later Roy Hodgson was quoted as saying: That Sterling was dealing with the burden of having played a lot of games this year. “In mitigation of a young player, he has broken into a team like Liverpool, had a fantastic season, gone to the World Cup, done well and been regarded as one of the few who lived up to his reputation.

“Then you come back and you’re still only 19 years of age, there are a lot of other things that play a part in people’s make up. It isn’t quite as simple as the training you’re doing maybe taking some juice from your legs. There is an awful lot going on in your head as well.

“Perhaps it’s quite simply the season hasn’t started quite as well for Liverpool as they wanted. He’s a player who’s always in the focus and spotlight for England and Liverpool, maybe that’s had some effect. But I don’t know, it’s a theory.”