Sunderland striker Jermain Defoe has admitted that he was disappointed to find out that he wasn’t part of Roy Hodgson’s initial 26-man England squad for Euro 2016 but says that he’ll never make himself unavailable for selection by the national team.
The 33-year-old had been tipped by some as a potential candidate to replace Arsenal striker Danny Welbeck after he was ruled out with a knee injury, but Hodgson overlooked Defoe and instead selected uncapped Manchester United forward Marcus Rashford.
As reported by the Sunderland Echo, Defoe said he will not retire from international football as one of the reasons he came back from the MLS was to hopefully earn a recall.
I’ve never retired and I’ll never turn my back on England because I still believe I can score goals at that level. That’s what’s kept me going, and one of the reasons I came back from the MLS. I just feel like I’ve done everything that I could do. I’m delighted that Sunderland stayed up and on a personal note, I’m delighted with the amount of goals that I’ve scored. That’s all I could do, really.
The former West Ham and Tottenham Hotspur striker, who scored 15 league goals to help Sunderland beat the drop, also said that he’d not really thought much about being selected for the Euros until he saw his name crop up in various publications.
Obviously, I’ve not been involved with England for quite a while and I’ve always thought that getting into an England squad before a tournament is based on merit. As a forward if you score goals then you’ve got a chance of going. Towards the end of the season, I started thinking about it but before I wasn’t. I was so focused on trying to help Sunderland stay in the Premier League. It’s only when you see things in the papers and people start talking about it – just mentioning my name about maybe getting into the squad – then I started thinking about it. So obviously, when you’re not in the squad, it’s a disappointment.
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