Hodgson casts doubts over new Poland date

England manager Roy Hodgson doubts the feasibility of playing the rearranged match against Poland on Wednesday.

The original fixture at the National Stadium in Warsaw was postponed on Tuesday due to a waterlogged pitch.

As a result, the World Cup 2014 qualifier has been quickly rescheduled but Hodgson has questioned whether the pitch would be in good enough condition less than 24 hours after the cancellation.

“The pitch is in a very poor condition,” Hodgson told ITV.

“There’s water lying on the surface and it’s going to need a lot of work on it to be playable tomorrow afternoon.”

Hodgson confirmed that he planned to field the same England starting line-up if the match does go ahead.

“I hope so, people can fall ill but I chose the team I wanted to start the game and I have no intention of changing it,” he said.

“The players are disappointed because when you play a game in the evening you spend a long day preparing for it.

“We’re very unhappy about it but what can you do. No one can decide whether it’s going to rain or not rain.”

It had been suggested the match could be played at a later date but Hodgson believes busy club schedules would prove a stumbling block.

“You can’t just suddenly decide to play it another time,” he said.

“We’ve prepared for this tonight – and no doubt the Poles have too – but now we’ll have to do it all again.

“I had no idea quite how bad the conditions were going to be. It’s up to the people whose responsibility it is to run the stadium for them to decide if and when the roof needs to be on.

“No one will be more disappointed than them but they will unfortunately pay the price because it might be more difficult to get the crowd into the stadium tomorrow.”