Rooney hits back at reports Hodgson lost England players

Rob Conlon
Wayne Rooney: Captain insists Hodgson was respected

Wayne Rooney: Captain insists Hodgson was respected

Wayne Rooney has refuted reports that England players lost faith in Roy Hodgson before the defeat to Iceland at Euro 2016.

Monday night witnessed one of the most embarrassing nights in English football history as Iceland, the smallest nation to ever grace a major tournament, secured a shock 2-1 win in Nice.

It saw England exit Euro 2016 at the last-16 juncture and led to Hodgson’s resignation within 20 minutes of the final whistle.

Reports emerged on Tuesday that senior players had doubted the manager’s ability to lead the team to the latter stages before the game, but captain Rooney has rejected those reports.

In a statement released to Press Association Sport, the England skipper said: ”In response to recent media reports, I’d like to say that is completely untrue.

”On behalf of the players, we completely supported the England manager, but we understand his reasons for stepping down.

”We had absolute faith in the build-up and throughout the tournament.”

When asked about senior players supposedly losing faith in him, Hodgson told a press conference on Tuesday afternoon: ”If it was true then they disguised it well from me and the coaching staff.

”We had no indication from the players that they were anything but behind what we were doing, behind the game plans that we had. They tried hard to execute them.

”In the game against Slovakia we dominated the game from start to finish and all we could be accused of from a critical point of view was that we didn’t take our chances.”