Roy Hodgson Says Jack Butland Injury Upsetting

 

England manager Roy Hodgson was left disturbed and upset by the injury which has all but ruled Jack Butland out of Euro 2016. The Stoke goalkeeper fractured his ankle in Saturday's 3-2 victory over Germany just as he had been given his chance to stake a claim to become Hodgson's first-choice ahead of the summer.

Hodgson, who said he has yet to decide if West Brom's Ben Foster could come in as the third goalkeeper for the Euros, praised Butland's strength of character, adding the stopper will be missed in France this summer. He said “I think it is very disturbing and very upsetting for us to see someone who has worked so hard this year get injured. He has had such a good season at Stoke, forced himself into a situation where many people said it was going to be a really good fight between him and Joe for the first-team shirt. Suddenly you get your chance against Germany and to fracture your ankle in that way is a devastating blow and we all felt sympathy for him, empathy as well of course because a lot of players have suffered injuries in their career. He was very strong about about it all, very stoic. He said to me he would come back stronger and said it would not affect his career in any way. That was good to hear and our best wishes are with him and we are all going to miss him because we were hoping he would be a part of it”.

Fraser Forster replaced Butland in the Olympiastadion and is set to start on Tuesday night as Hodgson prepares to rotate his squad for the visit of the Dutch on Tuesday.