England’s Raheem Sterling hits back at criticism for asking for rest

Raheem Sterling has appeared to defend himself after being criticised for asking to be rested for England’s Euro 2016 qualifying victory over Estonia. He tweeted “excuse me for being human”, but a number of former players have offered differing opinions on the Liverpool winger.

The 19-year-old was left on the bench for England’s 1-0 win in Tallinn following a conversation with Hodgson, who has since praised Sterling for being honest about his tiredness. He came on as a second-half substitute to win the free-kick that was converted by Wayne Rooney.

Rio Ferdinand was chief among the former internationals to defend Sterling via Twitter, suggesting that English players are often too proud to admit fatigue, “unlike our foreign friends”, citing Carlos Tevez as an example.

“Fair play to him. English players are normally too proud to do that unlike our foreign friends,” Ferdinand tweeted.

“For instance, Tevez would come in some days and sit on the massage bed while the team trained [saying] ‘I’m tired’,” Ferdinand tweeted.

“With more rest at the right times throughout seasons, Rooney would have gone into tournaments for England fresher. Same could be said of Gerrard, Lampard, JT, A.Cole myself – all too proud to sit out of training or a match with the bigger picture in mind.”

Sterling, who has already featured 14 times for club and country this season and has started on 12 occasions, made 44 appearances last term, including three times during England’s ill-fated World Cup campaign in Brazil. He has spent 1,105 minutes on the pitch this season, the third highest within the the England squad with Chelsea’s Gary Cahill leading the way. The BBC presenter Gary Lineker defended his decision to rest.

Lineker said: “Sterling is a teenager. Teenagers do get tired and even moody. He’s young, he’s still developing, we should cut him some slack.”

The BBC pundit Phil Neville has also spoken out in defence of Sterling, acknowledging that the Liverpool manager, Brendan Rodgers, had last week expressed concerns over his charge’s workload. But another BBC pundit, Alan Shearer, is among the those to question the youngster’s comments in his column for the Sun.

Shearer said: “Too tired! He is 19 – and it’s October. I genuinely have never heard something like that in my career … This will stick with Sterling for some time, believe me. The working man who is up at 6am and home at 8pm does not want to hear how tired a 19-year-old professional footballer is.”

He continued: “Perhaps all the attention over the last 18 months has simply gone to his head and he feels able to pick and choose his games depending on how good a night’s sleep he has had.”

The former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher, meanwhile, questioned whether it was wise for Hodgson to reveal the details of his conversation with Sterling, who has spent 1,105 minutes this season.

“We can debate whether Raheem Sterling should say that to the manager – for me, as a player, I’d never give the manager an opportunity to leave me out,” said the Sky Sports pundit. “I just think, whether he is tired or if he didn’t feel right before the game, keep that between yourselves.

“Listening to Roy Hodgson – let’s not forget Adam Lallana came on for Sterling and did really well against San Marino – he may have been looking to [rest him].

“Just come out after the game and say ‘I played Lallana, he came on and did well in the last game, I think Raheem needs a little bit of a rest’ and talk about it then. Rather than now, where there’s going to be a debate about Raheem Sterling and is he right at that age to be asking things like that?”