Five England players left out for Lithuania game

Hodgson thinks it is vital that England start Euro 2016 with a bang next summer. The England boss started Fulham’s run to the UEFA Cup final at this venue against FK Vetra, but he still reflects on winning the Swedish title with Halmstads as his finest hour.

“We were hoping that we’d have qualified by that time, and we are, so there’s no reason to complain about it”. It’s not a league. That’s how simple tournaments are. “I am happy because the team did not give in, because to concede a goal just before the end of the first half is not easy psychologically”, he said. “That’s what we’ve understood”.

World champions Germany await England in March and the Football Association is also planning a friendly against Holland before the finals.

“It is a great honour for me personally and, like the manager said, we’ve got a big task ahead of us (on Monday), to do something that we can be proud of”.

“I’m optimistic these players will recover fully from injury and will have a period of time between their recovery and France, and I will be able to consider them“, he said.

“If it doesn’t go our way, no harm is done and everybody knows that they’ve got to be fighting for a place in what I consider my first XI when we put the team out against Spain”.

England will rest five players from the squad to face Lithuania next week following Friday’s 2-0 win over Estonia that saw their ideal record reach nine games in Euro 2016 qualifying Group D.

“I am very pleased to have Phil Jagielka here with me”.

“But if you do come in and make an impact as a young player and there are a lot of injuries in the first team, there may be opportunities”.

Everton centre-back Phil Jagielka is to be captain, in the absence of fellow defender Gary Cahill – another player spared the trip – and injured striker Wayne Rooney, while Hodgson has strongly hinted that Swansea midfielder Jonjo Shelvey and Leicester forward Jamie Vardy, who came off the bench to tee up Sterling last week, may start.

“We were probably a bit unlucky to score no more than two goals against Estonia, but the most important thing is that we got the win”, Hodgson said.

An inexperienced party of 20 – the average number of caps per player in the squad is 12 – will travel to Lithuania on Sunday to prepare for Monday’s final qualifier. The Stoke goalkeeper will become the 31st player to be used by Hodgson in the qualification campaign, and Kyle Walker and Danny Ings could swell that total to 33 if they feature on the artificial pitch at the tiny LFF stadium.