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| John Terry has started both of Chelsea’s Premier League games under Antonio Conte this season. Photograph: Greenwood/IPS/Rex/Shutterstock |
Sam Allardyce has said John Terry could return for England, although the new manager accepts this also depends on the defender’s desire to do so.
Terry won the last of his 78 caps in England’s 5-0 away win over Moldova in September 2012,retiring from international football the same month before a Football Association hearing into the allegations that the Chelsea captain had racially abused Queens Park Rangers’ Anton Ferdinand.
The hearing came after Westminster magistrate’s court had cleared him of the accusation in July of that year. Terry stated the FA’s charge made his position “untenable”. English football’s governing body found him guilty and fined him £220,000, together with banning him for four games.
Allardyce is due to announce his first England squad on Sunday, before a five-day training camp and the opening 2018 World Cup qualifier against Slovakia on 4 September.
Asked if it is possible the 35-year-old Terry will play for England again, Allardyce said: “Maybe so. I think it depends on what John said. Maybe if I get the opportunity I might have to give him a ring but until I come to that selection or that process, we’ll wait and see.
“I don’t know what the political side of that might mean, if there is a political side. I’ll have to have that conversation if I feel that John Terry may be a possibility.”
With regard to the FA, Allardyce would be clear to select Terry, who has started both of Chelsea’s Premier League matches this season under Antonio Conte.
Despite giving assurances to the goalkeeper Joe Hart about his selection, Allardyce indicated he may drop Marcus Rashford because the 18-year-old has been an unused substitute for Manchester United so far this season. “It makes it harder for me now to select him, despite how exciting he was last year and how he burst on the scene,” he said.
“At such a young age, do I say: ‘Go play in the under-21s? Get used to international football there, play regularly there and it will help you eventually, hopefully break into the Manchester United team and then break into the England senior team.’ You’ve got all those scenarios to consider.”
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