ESPN FC’s Steve Nicol reacts to Raheem Sterling telling Roy Hodgson that he was too tired to play in England’s game against Estonia.
Raheem Sterling has responded to angry fans on Twitter who criticised the attacker for being too “tired” to start in England’s 1-0 win against Estonia on Sunday.
Sterling was left out of the Three Lions’ starting lineup for the Euro 2016 qualifier in Tallinn after he complained about fatigue during training on Saturday.
Roy Hodgson chose Adam Lallana instead and the England manager later defended Sterling’s honesty in his postmatch interview.
However, the 19-year-old faced criticism from England supporters on social media, retweeting some of their comments before later issuing his own response.
Sterling came off the bench during the second half of the match, despite only playing 45 minutes in Thursday’s 5-0 victory against San Marino at Wembley.
Hodgson predicted Sterling, who won the free kick from which England scored, would be fine by the time he next plays for Liverpool.
He told a news conference: “I’m convinced he’ll have a week now when he goes back to Liverpool, they’ll sort him out and come Sunday [when Liverpool play Queens Park Rangers] you’ll see him flying around.”
Out of the England players who featured against Estonia, only Gary Cahill has played more football this season than Sterling — the Chelsea defender has completed 1164 minutes of action compared to Sterling’s 1079 minutes.
Sterling also received plenty of support for asking to be rested, with several Liverpool fans taking to Twitter to defend their player.
Former England international Gary Lineker stuck up for the youngster and claimed Hodgson had done Sterling “no favours” by bringing the situation to light.
QPR defender Rio Ferdinand also voiced his support for Sterling, calling for more players to speak up when they are tired.
