Roy Hodgson: 'Clubs cannot blame countries for injuries to players after break'

By Danielle Joynson, Staff Reporter | 05 November 2015

England boss Roy Hodgson says that clubs cannot blame international teams when their players get injured in games after returning from duty for their countries.

England manager Roy Hodgson has claimed that it is not fair for clubs to blame international teams when their players suffer injuries shortly after going on duty for their countries.

Earlier this week, Wales boss Chris Coleman accused Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger of making a "cheap shot" when he blamed the national team for Aaron Ramsey's hamstring injury.

Wenger criticised the Welsh national side for playing Ramsey in their final Euro 2016 qualifier against Andorra last month despite already having sealed a place in next summer's finals in France.

When asked about the situation in this afternoon's press conference, Hodgson told reporters: "[Coleman is] entitled to air those opinions and say what he thinks about it.

"On a general basis I believe that when players return from international duty fit and then they get injured in their club game, I don't know if you can put that down to what's gone on in an international game, especially when there's a period of time in between the international game and the club game.

"So, I have sympathy for Arsene, but all we can do is to make certain is that we do the best for our countries and when it comes to resting players, I don't think it's totally incumbent upon national teams to do that because there's much more opportunity for club teams to rest their players than there are for international teams. We don't have that many games and the games are very important."

Hodgson has named his 23-man squad for next week's friendlies against Spain and France.