Stevo has sympathy over player withdrawals as mid-season international “was the wrong thing to do”

Today England’s preparations for the 2025 World Cup against the World Cup’s hosts France today.

However, there has been a touch of controversy about the teams.

14 players were reportedly withdrawn from the England squad with the expected reason being that clubs don’t want players with niggles to exacerbate their problems and pick up proper injuries.

Former Sky Sports commentator Stevo has addressed the problem but has sympathy for clubs saying it is “wrong” to have a mid-season international.

“It’s difficult for the coach to start with having so many of the top players out,” he said on the Eddie and Stevo podcast.

“They say they’re injured for whatever reason they don’t want to be selected, simple as that.

“In my opinion I thought it was the wrong thing to do to have an international midway through our season.

“I think that we should have had a three-game series against France, two over there or two over here at the end of the season.

“That’s where it should be, that’s where you can the assess who’s injured, who’s been coming through. There could be one or two youngsters that come to the fore at the back end of the season.

“I don’t know why they had to do it mid-season when a lot of injuries, and of course we could come across that at the end of the season but we’ve got to get some benefit out of it.

“A three match series would be better than a one match mid-season.

If France are a big enough draw: “We’ve got to try promote it a little bit more. We’ve got to make sure that IMG, they’re supposed to be the people that can make everything tick. Well if that’s the case then let’s start ticking.