England manager Roy Hodgson has said that Michael Carrick is in contention to play in Friday's Euro 2016 qualifier with Estonia and that the midfielder only missed a training session as a precaution.

The 34-year-old midfielder earned a call-up to the national side despite struggling with injury over the past month.

Carrick felt a slight strain in training for the Three Lions this week, but Hodgson told TheFA.com that it isn't a serious issue.

He said: "Michael Carrick trained fully in quite an intense training session on Wednesday, but he had a re-occurrence of a feeling that he sometimes gets in his groin – a slight tightening of the groin – and we didn't want to take any chances in what was a fairly light session before the match.

"So we decided to rest him for the session on the basis that it will help him be fit for tomorrow night."

Hodgson will be without his country's all-time record goalscorer and captain Wayne Rooney after the striker picked up a knock.

Written by
Kristian Johnson