Michael Carrick (Manchester United)
While the experienced Manchester United holding midfielder’s name may have been a regular feature in England head coach Roy Hodgson’s Three Lions squads ever since he took charge of the national team on the eve of the 2012 European championship in Poland/Ukraine, there is a big case to have been made for excluding the 32-year-old for next Wednesday’s friendly international with Denmark at Wembley Stadium.
As not only has the defensive midfielder only recently returned to action with the Premier League champions following a long layoff with a niggling Achilles’ tendon injury, but when the player did finally make it back into the first team picture at Old Trafford, Carrick has looked way off the pace, like many of his Red Devils team-mates in fact.
And with central midfield the one area of the team where Hodgson is more than covered with top-level options, the England manager could have opted to perhaps go with a different, new, face to try out in this non-competitive fixture, especially with the World Cup finals now just around the corner.