Roy Hodgson has revealed that injury was the main reason for Ashley Young

England boss Roy Hodgson has revealed that injury was the main reason behind Ashley Young not being involved in the squad for the Euro 2016 qualifiers against Slovenia.

It was rather surprising to see the Manchester United winger left out of the squad when Hodgson announced it a few weeks ago. After all, the 29-year-old had been in impressive form in the last six months of the campaign. At the start, manager Louis van Gaal was utilising the former Aston Villa man as a wing back. The discipline shown by Young in this position was rather surprising.

His renaissance comes at a time when his United career almost looked like being over after the club brought in Angel de Maria in the summer for £ 60 million. However, it turned out to be the death kneel for Nani and notYoung. Towards the end of the campaign,Young developed a spectacular partnership with the likes of Marouane Fellaini and Wayne Rooney to produce devastating performances. His best game in a United career came in the 4-2 win over Manchester City when two assists and a goal set up this victory. However, Hodgson says that the winger is no longer in top condition and that it was advisable to leave him out of the squad.

“We made soundings with the United medical department with regards to Ashley and they led us to believe there was a slight issue with him which does need to get cleared up over the summer.So on this occasion we decided it was probably not the right moment to ask him to come back.I certainly have not called time on his [England] career as far as I know, so we will see how it goes in the future. And I congratulate him on the latter part of the season with Manchester United, where he has played very well,” said Hodgson.