Roy Hodgson has told Liverpool he will be watching to see if Daniel Sturridge plays against West Brom on Saturday – as he denied Liverpool boss Brenden Rodgers’ claim the striker was injured on international duty last month because he was forced to train against his will.
Hodgson agreed to leave Sturridge out of the squad for next week’s Euro 2016 qualifying double-header against San Marino and Estonia after conversations with Rodgers over his thigh problem.
Hodgson insists that he will not be told how to train or rest player when they are on international duty and denied that Sturridge had suffered the injury after his wishes regarding training were ignored.
Rodgers made his feelings known last month stating that Sturridge was overruled when he told the England coaching staff that he needed lighter training between the Norway and Switzerland games.
The England boss had this to say: “I don’t remember that, at all. That’s dangerous that one.
“We will check that up with other members of staff but I don’t have any memory of Daniel telling me he didn’t want to train.
“The interesting thing about the session where Daniel got injured is that he was quite keen to take part in it because he was such an important part of it, and we were trying to develop a new system of play.’’
Hodgson revealed that England doctors had travelled to the Reds’ Melwood HQ and agreed Sturridge would not be fit for the upcoming games, although he added: “Let’s wait and see if he plays this weekend. If he does, that will be a matter for some discussion.’’
But the England boss, while adamant “there isn’t a club-country conflict on this”, was clearly unhappy at the idea that he had been told by Rodgers to give Sturridge extra recovery time.
“He never asked for that. I’ve never been asked to give 48 hours to a player,” continued Hodgson.
“We did quite a lot of two-day recoveries during our time in Brazil and we realised that we were just killing ourselves in terms of the training time we have available. If, every time, we give two days off pre-match or post-match, we will be down to 20 days’ training over the next 18 months.
“It was a muscle injury. I’m not trying to be nonchalant or dismiss responsibility. Far from it – if anyone says I am that would be unjust – but you have to be careful saying injuries are preventable.
“We could’ve done a completely different training session or Daniel could’ve done a recovery session which Brendan might’ve thought was more suitable, but I still couldn’t guarantee there wouldn’t have been an injury.
“I don’t think there’s a week goes by when I don’t read about a manager complaining about his injury situation. But they haven’t all happened with England.”