Leicester striker Vardy fired the victor in a 2-1 victory over Turkey at Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium as Roy Hodgson’s men began their pre-championships friendly campaign.
Advertisement
“Kane and Vardy will face more competition when Sturridge turns up and when Rooney turns up and who knows we still have Rashford”.
“Vardy won’t be involved on Friday because he is getting married on Wednesday”, said Hodgson.
Hodgson is unsure why the wedding was planned for Wednesday, but suggests that Vardy had, quite understandably, not expected to be called into England duty so soon after the season ended.
‘It was more hard for me than maybe it would have been to complain about this date. You must also remember that under normal circumstances Wednesday would have been about the time we were meeting up.
“It’s been the hardest season of my career so far but you’ve got to go through that, before that I was quite lucky and didn’t really have any bad ones”.
“Do I think the public will be surprised? In terms of a second preparation game it hasn’t caused me any particular problems”.
That could well mean a starting spot for Daniel Sturridge, with England’s Liverpool and Manchester United players due to link up with the squad this morning after missing today’s game because of the Europa League and FA Cup finals respectively.
He made his England debut in May a year ago and is a key man in Hodgson’s Euro 2016 plans.
Hodgson has given Vardy permission to stay away until Saturday, but the player is planning to return to training on Thursday despite not being considered for selection against Australia. He took a nasty knock.
It is great to see England travelling around the country, allowing fans who do not normally see them live the chance to attend a game.
Kane gave England the lead in the third minute and missed a 72nd-minute penalty that would have restored England’s lead after Hakan Calhanoglu’s 13th-minute equaliser – Turkey’s first-ever goal against England in 11 games.
Vardy made amends for his strike partner’s error by smashing home from close range after Turkey goalkeeper Volkan Babacan fumbled a Gary Cahill header and will now leave the squad to get married.
Roy Hodgson is the sixth England manager to reach 50 games (following Walter Winterbottom, Alf Ramsey, Ron Greenwood, Bobby Robson and Sven-Goran Eriksson). “And there were some positive aspects”.
Advertisement
In a patchy England display, Hodgson saw Jack Wilshere play for 66 minutes in his first global game since last June after missing nearly the entire season with a fractured shin, while Jordan Henderson continued his recovery from a knee problem as the Arsenal man s replacement. But we are not the finished article and there is still work to be done.
