NO WOOD-BE ENGLISHMAN

CHRIS COLEMAN insists England had no chance of poaching Ben Woodburn after his stunning Wales debut finally dashed Three Lions hopes.

Woodburn, who was born and raised in Cheshire but who qualifies for Wales through his grandparents, had previously been the subject of interest from England.

That was after the Liverpool starlet scored on his debut against Leeds in November 2016 to become, at 17 years and 45 days, the Anfield club’s youngest-ever scorer.

Now Woodburn, a month short of his 18th birthday, has become Wales’s second youngest scorer behind Real Madrid star Gareth Bale (above). He added to his growing reputation after coming off the bench to smash a stunning winner on his debut in Saturday’s World Cup qualifier against Austria.

Woodburn notched four minutes after coming on in Cardiff to massively boost Welsh chances of qualifying for the 2018 finals in Russia.

His international bow now ties him to Wales but boss Coleman says his allegiances should never have been questioned after playing for Wales since under-15 level. Coleman said: “Ben has always declared himself Welsh to play for Wales.There was talk of Ben playing for England but we can’t control that.”

And Coleman (above) quashed talk that he gave Woodburn a taste of the action only to ensure he could no longer be poached by Gareth Southgate’s England. “I would never take a gamble on a young player,” he said.“If I thought he was going to be out of his depth I wouldn’t put him through that.”