Tag: England

MOYES CONCERNED

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Everton manager David Moyes has said that he is extremely concerned about the hamstring problem Jack Rodwell was at the moment. Jack Rodwell has suffered his fourth hamstring injury of the season. He has been out of the first team action since January 4. Hamstring injuries usually take about a month to recover, but Jack Rodwell is yet to return to first-team action. This has seriously concerned Everton manager David Moyes, who has said that the situation with Jack Rodwell is extremely confusing. Despite being allowed extra time to recover from the injury, Jack Rodwell is yet to come anywhere close to full fitness.

This is not the first time Jack Rodwell has not been at 100%. The 20-year-old England midfielder has suffered a number of injury problems in the past. They have been the only limiting factor in preventing him from moving to a big club in very much the same way Wayne Rooney did in 2004. Prior to the injury problems surfacing, it was thought that Jack Rodwell could be worth around £ 30 million for Everton. However, it is highly unlikely that clubs will be prepared to pay such a huge amount of money for a player who is injured often.

“It is a big concern. In truth, we have given this injury longer than we should. He has done lots of extra work, lots of strengthening. He has had a week and half of football training. We were going to play a practice match here and I was going to maybe play him in that. Maybe it’s not too bad. We don’t know yet,” said the Everton manager. Despite the incredible number of injuries suffered to major players, Everton are doing well in the Premier league table. They are currently in the 10th position.

Rooney Left Out

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Wayne Rooney has been left out of the latest England squad, as coach Fabio Capello tries to come to terms with the fact that they will the team will be forced to play without their star striker in all three of ther Euro 2012 Group games.

Rooney was needlessly sent-off against Montenegro when England were 2-1 up in their final qualification match for Poland-Ukraine 2012.  In the referee’s report it said he was sent off for violent conduct – an offence that carries an automatic three match ban.  Whilst the FA have appealed against Rooney missing all 3 matches, citing his good behaviour in previous matches, UEFA have upheld the ban.

Because Rooney will be unavailable for the group matches, Capello has had to cast his net wider, to see what other attacking options he could use.  Danny Welbeck has already been tried up-front on his own (against Ghana) but struggled to make an impact, whilst the Aston Villa pair of Agbonlahor and Bent have been lacklustre when the claret-and-blues hav faced top-class opposition. Chelsea’s Daniel Sturridge, who has had an encouraging start to the season after a great year on loan at Bolton last year, is likely to be given his chance against Spain on Saturday, and looks the most likely to succeed in winning a first-team spot.

By the looks of it, Capello has written off the hopes of Michael Owen, Emile Heskey, Peter Crouch and Jermain Defoe, all of whom have been left out along with Rooney.

England play Spain on Saturday evening at their new Wembley home, in a match that is being televised live on ITV.  They then follow it up with a midweek friendly against Sweden (again at Wembley).  And they will have to do without wayne Rooney for both.