Hodgson: Crouch refused Euro 2012 spot

Stoke City striker Peter Crouch refused a spot on the Euro 2012 standby list, according to England manager Roy Hodgson.

The 31-year-old target man has been left out of Hodgson’s first two World Cup qualifiers, despite injuries to both Wayne Rooney and Andy Carroll and doubts over Daniel Sturridge’s fitness.

And the veteran manager revealed that it was the former Liverpool and Tottenham man’s decision to avoid involvement in the summer tournament and not his.

“I selected him for the Euros but he didn’t want to come,” Hodgson said.

“He made it clear that unless he was in the squad he didn’t want to be considered.

“As a result, we’ve selected squads since that time when I felt I didn’t need him here. I’m not going to bring him here to fill up the bench. The day Crouch gets in the England squad is when I think he should be in the original 23.”

However, despite not being picked in the squad for their most recent matches against Moldova and Ukraine, the Three Lions boss has not dismissed any player from future squads and insists he will be following the progress of strikers such as Crouch and Darren Bent, who has also failed to feature for his country since Hodgson’s appointment.

“They have both played for England in the past. Darren Bent was injured for a large part of last season and the new season is only three Premier League games old. He is a player we’ll be following,” he added.

“I was thinking Andy Carroll and Wayne Rooney when I put this squad together but I lost Rooney a week before and then Carroll at the last minute. I’ve not dismissed anybody, even Peter Crouch.”

Normal
0

false
false
false

EN-AU
X-NONE
X-NONE

/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:”Table Normal”;
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:””;
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin-top:0cm;
mso-para-margin-right:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt;
mso-para-margin-left:0cm;
line-height:115%;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:”Calibri”,”sans-serif”;
mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:”Times New Roman”;
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:”Times New Roman”;
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}