Roy Hodgson has conceded he is powerless to stop Manchester City taking their England players on a post-season trip to the UAE.
Hodgson wants his England squad to have a week off after the end of the Premier League season, but Joe Hart and James Milner will travel to the UAE for an exhibition match between City and Al Ain at Hazza bin Zayed Stadium on May 15, four days after the club’s final game of the campaign.
Hart and Milner, both of whom are expected to be in Hodgson’s World Cup squad, will definitely travel with the City squad, but manager Manuel Pellegrini has promised not to play them.
Hodgson prefers the duo did not make the 16-hour round trip.
He wrote to every Premier League club asking them to keep their players free from May 12-19, but City ignored the request.
“I sent out a letter on FA paper to the clubs, giving them our programme and asking them to be aware that my intention was that, from the last game of the season, the players should be totally free until we meet up, to get a break from football,” Hodgson said.
“That’s what we would like. But the bottom line is that we have no control over it.
“I’ve done what I can do. I’m an England manager and I’ve said to the clubs that, as England manager, I think it best that they have a week away from football at the end of the season, to relax and clear their minds so that from May 19 they can settle down and put a lot of thought and a lot of focus and physicality into trying to win the World Cup.
“But if the clubs say ‘we’re not interested in that, we want to do something else’, then there’s nothing I can do about it.”
City have said the trip to the UAE – the home country of the club’s owner, Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed – will be like a holiday for the players, stressing first-class air travel and free time on the beach or at golf courses.
City were to have played Al Ain in the inaugural match at their new stadium on January 14, but an FA Cup replay for City made that trip impossible.
Liverpool also have scheduled a post-season friendly, against Shamrock Rovers in Dublin, but they have promised that no England players in Hodgson’s squad will take part in the game, which is at the Aviva Stadium on May 14.
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