Hodgson rules out Terry return

John Terry retired from international football following England's World Cup qualifying win in Moldova
20 November 2013

England manager Roy Hodgson has insisted he will not be panicked into asking former captain John Terry to reconsider his decision to retire from international duty ahead of the 2014 World Cup finals in Brazil.

Germany inflicted a 1-0 loss on Tuesday night which resulted in successive Wembley defeats for the first time in 36 years and saw defensive deficiencies again exposed following Friday's 2-0 defeat to Chile.

Former England defender Danny Mills, a member of the Football Association commission analysing the national team's failings and seeking solutions, called for Chelsea skipper Terry to be recalled from retirement during his work as a pundit for BBC Radio Five Live.

Terry featured in all four of England's Euro 2012 matches under Hodgson and retired from international football following the World Cup qualifying win in Moldova - the last of his 78 caps - prior to being banned by the FA for racially abusing Anton Ferdinand.

Hodgson gave the suggestion of a return short shrift.

"We've moved on from that. John retired," the England boss told BBC Sport after the game. "We've qualified with our 10 matches and 10 matches with (Gary) Cahill and (Phil) Jagielka and we've seen a very good performance from Chris Smalling tonight.

"I think it's important that we continue along those lines, continue looking forward and that we don't start panicking and looking backwards every time we have a reverse."

Smalling was beaten to the ball by Per Mertesacker as the Arsenal defender's header earned a largely second-string Germany victory and saw England booed off for the second time in five days.

The margin of defeat could have been greater had Joe Hart, dropped by Manchester City in recent weeks, not pulled off a string of saves, including one double save in the first half.

Hodgson added: "It's always disappointing to get boos, but there aren't many games where the home side don't get the result and then don't boo.

"I'm disappointed, it's not nice to lose, especially a second game at home. One can't be in any way satisfied. I'm not disappointed with the effort the players put in, the work rate and their application.

"We didn't play well enough, didn't win, and sent 85,000 people home disappointed.

"We're going to have to play better and win matches. Where the Germans were clearly better than us was in their passing and in their finishing around the final third. We let ourselves down in that area."

England captain Steven Gerrard, who missed last week's training, was substituted after 55 minutes after "stiffening up" and Ashley Cole also came off with a recurrence of a rib injury.

Gerrard's Liverpool play the Merseyside derby with Everton this weekend, while Cole's Chelsea are at West Ham.

Germany coach Joachim Low was frustrated his side did not win more decisively.

Low said: "I was annoyed at times because we really squandered our chances and should have extended our lead and got that second goal with England open in defence. But it was not to be."

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