Roy Hodgson reckons Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain will still play a part in England’s World Cup campaign.
The Three Lions manager feared the worst when Arsenal winger Oxlade-Chamberlain hobbled off after suffering a knee injury in the 2-2 draw with Ecuador on Wednesday.
But after watching his side draw 0-0 with Honduras at the Sun Life Stadium in Miami on Saturday, Hodgson was confident the 20-year-old would overcome the injury.
He said: “Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is making good progress – I think he’ll make the tournament without a shadow of a doubt.”
England 0-0 Honduras
International friendly
Sun Life Stadium, Miami
Saturday 7 June 2014
Hodgson’s squad will arrive at their Rio base on Sunday to begin their preparations for the Brazilian showpiece.
Their campaign starts on Saturday 14 June against Italy in Manaus and the England boss cannot wait to get the tournament under way.
He said: ”We’re all very much looking forward to that - it’s time for the real thing now.
“We’ve had three weeks of preparation and they couldn’t have gone much better other than had we won this game one or two nil but it wouldn’t have made a vast difference to anything.
“The discipline has been very good and the attitude of the players has been absolutely first class. They’ve got on with their jobs at all times.
Hodgson looks on as England draw 0-0 with Honduras
“I really think that where we’ve based our training camps – first in Portugal and then at St. George’s Park – then with a game at Wembley and two in Miami – couldn’t have worked much better for us and we go to Brazil in a very good frame of mind.
“We’re really looking forward to the tournament and have fortunately not suffered more than the one injury to Alex.”
England were given a good workout by Honduras and withstood a series of strong challenges from their opponents in the second half after the match was suspended for 40 minutes following a severe electrical storm a quarter of the way into the game.
Hodgson added: “They were quite physical. It was a real stop-start game - one of the most frustrating games I’ve been involved with in a long time.
“We had a very long stop but I thought we dealt with that well. In the second half it was just a giant attack versus defence…they got their players behind the ball and we unfortunately didn’t take our chances.
Hodgson said the stop-start nature of the game made for a frustrating afternoon
“We certainly attempted to make the chances and I thought the tempo of our play and our effort to score a goal in the second half was commendable but it was a very frustrating game and one that I will soon forget.”
However, Hodgson highlighted the performance of half time substitutes Ross Barkley and Jack Wilshere as positives to take away from the game.
He said: “I thought Ross and Jack added a great injection of attacking flair to our game. We really did take the game to Honduras in the second half…I thought we did that in the first half as well but we really did push them back in the second half.
“Unfortunately it was just the last pass or last shot that didn’t go our way. I’ll take the draw and the fact we got away without any injuries. And I’ll take the fact we got some experience against Central American opposition which might prepare us better for Costa Rica than having not played here today."
