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England U-21 manager Stuart Pearce finally gave in to repeated requests from Arsenal boss, Arsene Wenger to protect Jack Wilshere from burn-out. The 19 year old midfielder’s mercurial rise this season saw him make a staggering 34 appearances in the Barclays Premier League for Arsenal.
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With captain Fabregas missing large parts of the season through injury, Wilshere showed tremendous maturity, grits and determination to cement a permanent place in Arsenal’s engine room. Despite having been upbeat about representing the Three Lions at UEFA European U-21 Championships to be held in Denmark, he came round after Arsene Wenger warned him against a burnout and articulated the need to rest to have a prolonged career at the highest level. The former England left back and current England U-21 manager Stuart Pearce, who managed Manchester City in 2005-07 was pragmatic about the entire situation. He was quoted,
“I am very conscious of the importance of looking after all our players, and that is why I have frequent conversations with club managers throughout the season.”
Amongst other big names missing out was Andy Carroll who has been sidelined with an injury. The loss of these two stalwarts would be a major setback to England who were looking to better their runners-up finish in 2009. Despite the twin setbacks, there is no dearth of premier league stars in Pearce’s squad with Micah Richards (Manchester City), Danny Welbeck (Manchester United), Jordan Henderson (Sunderland) and Kierran Gibbs (Arsenal) already having made senior level appearances.
Along with Gibbs and Richards, Jack Rodwell (Everton), Fabrice Muamba (Bolton) and Michael Mancienne (Wolves) were part of the team that meekly surrendered to Germany (0-4) in the final of UEFA European U-21 Championships, 2009. England’s trump card might well be Daniel Sturridge who enjoyed a brilliant spell at Bolton on-loan from Chelsea and has proved his mettle at the highest level.
England kick-off on June 12 against Spain with Czech Republic and Ukraine completing their group (Group B).
