Gareth Southgate has revealed that he twice had to talk Kyle Walker out of international retirement and admits that his right-back is critical to England’s chances of winning the European Championship next summer.
Walker scored his maiden international goal during England’s 1-1 draw against Ukraine, collecting a raking Harry Kane pass and poking the ball beyond goalkeeper Georgiy Bushchan. He also dealt with the threat of Mykhailo Mudryk with consummate composure, with Southgate rating him as England’s best player on Saturday evening.
England’s bumper crop of right-backs has been well-documented, but the progression of younger options has not quite occurred as predicted. Reece James is currently injured, Trent Alexander-Arnold has been used as a central midfielder and Kieran Trippier is behind Walker in the queue, although he may start against Scotland on Tuesday.
With Walker arguably never in better form for his country, Southgate has revealed that England could easily have lost his services were it not for the manager’s powers of persuasion.
“The way I hear him speak when he’s interviewed, his influence on the group, he’s become a really mature leader for us,” Southgate said.
“But also the way he’s trained all week, his influence on younger players in the group.
“His all-round game, great composure in a position where you don’t always find it and our senior players were important and he was the pick against Ukraine.”
“He’s got huge experience of winning big matches and all week, I pulled him two or three days into the training because his focus was really clear, the way he was organising on the pitch and I think he’s enjoying the extra responsibility he’s had at his club and I know he’s ready to embrace that with us as well.
“It’s always all credit to him and I’ve talked him out of retirement twice! Out of international football. After the Euros and after the World Cup, I think he loves being here and he’s wanted to keep going and now he’s thinking about how many caps can he get. He’s critical to us. If we’re talking about world-class players in their position in our team then he’s probably one of them.”
When pressed on the reasons for Walker potentially walking away from England, Southgate said that his right-back had probably underestimated how highly he was valued by Southgate and his coaches and how important he is for the team.
Although that was something Walker himself alluded to, he also stressed the commitment made to marry regular international football with long, draining club seasons.
“At the time that me and Gareth spoke, the likes of Trent, Tripps, Reece James coming through, you do think your days are numbered,” Walker said. “And to sacrifice how many holidays and summers that I’ve sacrificed.
“I’ve been doing this since I was 19 [when] I joined the senior team. I’m 33 now. Me and Gareth have a good relationship off the field. We do speak and I feel that I can still bring something to the team. So why stop?”
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