Roy Hodgson claimed that John Terry may be the ideal partner for Chris Smalling

Roy Hodgson claimed that former captain and defender John Terry may be the ideal partner for Chris Smalling.

Terry retired from international duty in 2012 after he claimed to have not been given enough support from the English FA in the incident involving Anton Ferdinand. The latter claimed that Terry racially abused him during a match between Chelsea and QPR. The English FA punished the defender with some stringent measures, but he was not found guilty of racial abuse by a court of law. Quoting the latter, Terry said that the English FA had been extremely tough with him and retired from international duty immediately.

Terry later said that he has not regretted the decision to quit the national team, as it has allowed him to focus on his club career more. He has been able to stay fit for Chelsea even at 35. Rio Ferdinand played with the England national team well into his 30s and he had to retire at this age. Terry, meanwhile, is expected to carry on playing at the top level for a couple of years.

Hodgson admitted that Terry would have been a great presence in the centre of the defence going into the Euro 2016, but he claimed that he was not going to talk the 35-year-old out of retirement. Whilst Terry might not yet be coming to an age where a Gala bingo promo code would come in handy, the fact remains that he is a much inferior player to his 28 year old self, at the peak of his powers.

“I had a long chat with John the other day. He’s a lovely fella” – and acknowledged that, if circumstances had been different, Terry would have been the ideal candidate to partner Chris Smalling, his first-choice centre-back.There are, in my opinion, no left-sided centre-backs who are English and playing in the Premier League who are at least at the level of the ones we are choosing. hat’s a fact of life and there is not much we can do about it,” said Hodgson.