James Milner reveals he rejected offer to play for England at 2018 World Cup as it would have been a ‘bad look’
JAMES MILNER has revealed he rejected Gareth Southgate’s offer to come out of retirment as it would have been a “bad look”.
The Brighton star retired from England duty after Euro 2016.
Milner revealed he made that decision following a conversation with then manager Sam Allardyce, who admitted he would be a back-up player.
The 37-year-old wanted to be a first-team regular so stepped away in order to free up a space for a younger player, for whom the experience of just being in the squad would be valuable.
But when Big Sam was sacked after just one game Southgate came calling, and Milner made the difficult call to stand by his decision to retire.
He said on the High Performance podcast: “Southgate rang me and said ‘I want you back, I think you’d play a big part for us, leader’, stuff like that.
“My feeling was that if he had been the next England manager in six weeks before and he said what he said (then) I’d have defintely carried on, 100 per cent.
“But at that point I had retired and I feel like when you do something you fully commit to it 100 per cent and I just felt well how does it look me retiring, now I’m not retiring, changing it on the wind of an opinion.
“It just felt like the right thing that I’d done it, even though if he had been the manager (after Roy Hodgson) I’d have carried on playing.”
Milner won 61 caps for the Three Lions between 2009-2016 and scored one goal.
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He played in two World Cups and two European Championships but became disillusioned after only playing a bit-part role under Hodgson, despite a successful club career at Manchester City and Liverpool.
Milner later proved why Southgate was desperate to bring him out of retirement after winning the Champions League and the Premier League with the Reds.