Carragher rues second yellow

0 CommentsPrint E-mail AFP, June 19, 2010
Adjust font size:

Cape Town - Liverpool's Jamie Carragher may have played his last part in the World Cup, with a second yellow card ruling him out of England's final crucial group game against Slovenia.

The experienced defender was booked against the United States as a substitute and again on Friday after starting in the disappointing 0-0 draw with Algeria in Cape Town.

It means an automatic one-match ban, and with Rio Ferdinand already gone home and Ledley King injured that is bad news for coach Fabio Capello.

Matthew Upson is favourite to take his place in the back line alongside John Terry, Ashley Cole and Glen Johnson.

Carragher said he felt the booking was unjustified.

"I thought my booking was very harsh. But we'll deal with it. In the next couple of days we have to forget this match and move on," he said, calling on his teammates to knuckle down and beat Slovenia on Wednesday.

"We're disappointed but we've got to play again on Wednesday and put it right," he said.

"We have to get ourselves up and get back. We've put ourselves under a bit of pressure for the last game, which we didn't want to do, but Slovenia is a massive game now."

Carragher turned his back on England three years ago after growing disillusioned at his lack of playing time under Sven-Goran Eriksson and then Steve McClaren.

The Liverpool centre-back had been inspirational in his club's runs to the 2005 and 2007 Champions League finals and felt he deserved a regular place in the national team.

However, injuries to the likes of Wes Brown and Joleon Lescott in the build-up to the World Cup convinced Capello to persuade Carragher, 32, to change his mind, and he readily agreed to come out of international retirement.   

Copyright News24.com. Reprinting is not allowed without express, written permission.

Print E-mail Bookmark and Share

Go to Forum >>0 Comments

No comments.

Add your comments...

  • User Name Required
  • Your Comment
  • Racist, abusive and off-topic comments may be removed by the moderator.
Send your storiesGet more from China.org.cnMobileRSSNewsletter