England manager Roy Hodgson has revealed that he considered selecting Crystal Palace winger Wilfried Zaha before opting to pick Jesse Lingard instead.
Zaha, who won the last of his two caps in 2013, has been in good form for his club this season and was tipped to be added to the squad after Michael Carrick and Jamie Vardy pulled out.
However, Manchester United's Lingard was included instead, despite having played just 193 minutes of Premier League football, but Hodgson has said that Zaha was also in his thinking.
"We did consider him, yes," Football365.com quotes the England boss as saying.
"He came in a similar type of player. They're both wingers. We did consider him, but we decided on Jesse."
England face France in a friendly at Wembley this evening.
Written by
Steven Toplis
Steven Toplis
