Roy Hodgson: England boss backs Coleman in Wenger row
Aaron Ramsey has won 38 caps for Wales and
played for Great Britain at the 2012 Olympics
England manager Roy Hodgson has defended
Wales counterpart Chris Coleman in his dispute
with Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger.
Coleman accused Wenger of a "cheap shot"
after the Frenchman suggested Aaron
Ramsey's hamstring injury was caused by
playing for Wales.
Ramsey came off in Arsenal's win over Bayern
Munich, three days after playing 90 minutes at
Watford on 17 October.
"What Chris Coleman has said, he must stand
for that," said Hodgson.
"He had his opinion about the comments
Arsene made and he's entitled to air those
opinions and say what he thinks about it.
"On a general basis I do believe that when
players return from international duty fit, if they
then get injured in their club game, I do not
know that you can put that down specifically to
what's gone on in an international game."
Wenger had criticised Coleman for selecting
midfielder Ramsey in Wales' final Euro 2016
qualifier against Andorra.
The 24-year-old's injury means he will miss
Wales' friendly against Netherlands on 13
November.
"I sympathise with Arsene because to lose
three players like he did, one does tend to look
for every possible reason that there could be,"
added Hodgson.
"All we can do really is to make certain that we
do the best for England, or Wales in his
[Coleman's] case, and then the club manager
must do the best for his team.
"When it comes to resting players, I don't think
it can be completely incumbent upon national
teams to do that because there's much more
opportunity for club teams to rest their players
than there are for international managers to
rest their players.
"You do not have that many [international]
games and the games are very important
ones."
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