Football reasons: Terry was chosen and Ferdinand rejected for pure footballing reasons, insists Hodgson

‘The football reasons are quite simple. I wanted seven back players: three centre backs, with Jones in the squad, especially when Kyle Walker was no longer a possibility, because Phil Jones can play right back or centre half and I’ve been impressed with him. So I decided on my three centre backs and Rio wasn’t one of them. I admire Rio Ferdinand, I respect Rio Ferdinand, but, as a  football coach, you have to make decisions sometimes. I’ll stand by that and hope that route, the players that I’ve chosen, will not let me and the country down.’

Terry convinced Hodgson he would not let him down, that the impending trial would not prove a distraction, in that meeting on Tuesday. Hodgson said that, having listened to his pleas for inclusion, he told Terry at the meeting that he was in, which might explain why the Chelsea skipper is thought to have emerged wiping away tears.

By selecting Terry ahead of Ferdinand, Hodgson has entered some dangerous moral territory whether he likes it or not. On Wednesday he and the FA certainly got a little agitated by the number of questions concerning the two.

But Hodgson has been ‘parachuted in’ to the England job and he has had to name 23 players for a major tournament when he has worked with only two of them in the past: Steven Gerrard and Glen Johnson.

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