Roy Hodgson rebuffs burnout fear for England players

‘I’m not a great lover of burnout argument,’ says England manager

Roy Hodgson has made it clear he will not accept complaints about the possibility of England players such as Harry Kane and Ross Barkley being in danger of “burnout” and warned their clubs they need to accept international players will face exacting schedules.

Hodgson’s decision to allow Kane to be part of the England set-up for the European Under-21 Championship this summer has led to concerns at Tottenham the 21-year-old is in danger of playing too much football without getting a proper rest. Everton have the same issues potentially with Ross Barkley, bearing in mind he was at the World Cup last year and should also be involved at Euro 2016.

The England manager is unimpressed by the argument it is unfair to expect footballers to face these kind of demands. “I’m not a great lover of the burnout argument, I’ve got to say. If you want to be an international player then you’ve got to accept tournaments take place in the summer at the end of the season.

“You can say: ‘What about Qatar?’ but that’s a long way off. In my lifetime in football, as soon as the season has finished, footballers have gone to tournaments. Anyone who wants to be a top-class international footballer and really believes he can help his country get to these tournaments can’t then talk about burnout.”

Kane’s involvement with the under-21s means he will miss England’s friendly against Republic of Ireland on 7 June and the Euro 2016 qualifier in Slovenia a week later. “The main reason is because Harry wants to go with the under-21s,” Hodgson said. “Harry wants to finish the job he has already started. He has been a major part of their qualifying campaign for the last 18 months. He’s had to work his way into the team and in my conversations with him it has been pretty obvious he would like to play in this tournament.

“We will miss him because he has done well for us in the last 10 days but I said very early on I was more than happy to accept Gareth Southgate would have the first pick of Harry, certainly, and that John Stones might come into that category. So if Gareth wants to pick them, that is fine by me.

“He is going to be important for Gareth and I would like to think that if the under-21s can continue to do well, and Harry can play an important part and maybe help them go far in the tournament, that certainly won’t hurt his chances in the senior team. I am happy to back him.”


By Daniel Taylor / Guardian