Hodgson explains Ferdinand snub
KYIV – England manager Roy Hodgson has finally moved to explain the “footballing reasons” that led to the omission of Rio Ferdinand from his squad for the Euro 2012 championship on the eve of the team’s opening match against France.
In an off-camera briefing, Hodgson revealed that he never considered calling up the Manchester United centre half as a late replacement when injuries took their toll on the squad in the build-up to the finals.
Ferdinand, who has been capped 81 times but has not played for his country in a year, was controversially left out of the 23-man squad announced by Hodgson last month.
His fellow central defender John Terry, who is due in court on July 9 after being charged with racially abusing Ferdinand’s younger brother Anton last October, was included in the original group.
Since then, three significant outfield players – Gareth Barry, Frank Lampard and Gary Cahill – have dropped out after sustaining injuries.
Terry, who denies the charge against him, has been warned by Hodgson about his conduct during the Euro 2012 tournament.
Cahill would have been a first choice at centre half, but rather than recalling the 33-year-old Ferdinand, Hodgson opted instead to promote Martin Kelly, in effect Liverpool’s back-up right-back, to his travelling squad.
“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.
“Rio Ferdinand never came into consideration. I had my squad of 23, I had the players I knew, in Cahill’s absence, would probably be the starters, and I knew who would be the covering players. When it came to bringing another player in, I wasn’t going to bring in a player of Rio Ferdinand’s age, class, background and experience to be a cover player.
“My first thought was actually not Martin Kelly but (Tottenham defender) 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.”
“It was a tough call to make, to tell him that I wasn’t including him – one I didn’t look forward to making.”
Asked whether Terry’s presence in the squad had any bearing on Ferdinand’s non-selection, Hodgson added: “It wasn’t part of my decision. I chose the centre backs I wanted to come with me. I can’t be clearer than that.”
Following a conversation with Hodgson, Ferdinand refused to divulge what was discussed but said on Saturday he thought his England career was over. THE GUARDIAN