Theo Walcott refuses to blame anyone for his failure to make England’s World Cup squad and believes he is ready to reignite his international career in Friday’s Euro 2012 qualifier against Bulgaria.
Arsenal winger Walcott was surprisingly omitted from Fabio Capello?s World Cup squad amid rumours his lack of progress and inability to follow orders had left the Italian frustrated.
However, Capello has been quick to turn to the 21-year-old following England?s miserable performances in South Africa and he is expected to start against Bulgaria at Wembley in the opening Euro qualifier.
Walcott has enjoyed a hugely encouraging start to the season with Arsenal, scoring four goals so far, including a hat-trick against Blackpool.
The player once hailed as England?s great hope following three goals in a World Cup qualifier in Croatia is confident he is on the way back to being a major player for England.
“Everything has gone well so far,” he said. “I had a very good pre-season with no injuries and I had a nice break in the close-season so I just have to keep my feet on the ground.
“I don’t know if missing the World Cup has given me impetus. It was one of those things we will never know.
“But I didn’t point fingers at anyone, I just looked at myself. It was disappointing not going but I didn’t want to blame anyone; I blamed myself and just made sure it didn’t happen again.
“I didn’t want to think too much about it, and had a good mental break because you want to spend time with your family when you can.
“It is nice to be back in the squad and hopefully I can let football do the talking now.”
Walcott’s first priority will be to impress Capello in training this week in a bid to prove, at the tender age of 21, he is still learning and improving — and he was quick to dismiss speculation that Capello?s poor communication with his players has been at the heart of England’s problems.
“The message always gets across to us players, we always know what to do on the pitch,” he insisted.
“We have to go out there and prove people wrong. We want to try and do it for him. He is our manager and has got tremendous faith in us all.
“Our last qualification went very well, we won every single game pretty much. We have got new players coming in and I think we have a nice balance between young and experienced players.”
