You’ll never walk off alone
WE’RE IN IT TOGETHER SAYS HUDSON-ODOI
CALLUM HUDSON-ODOI says England players now feel empowered to walk off the pitch if they are targeted by racists.
The 18-year-old Chelsea star suffered abuse in Podgorica on his first start for the Three Lions in the 5-1 win against Montenegro last March.
Although he missed the vile treatment of England’s black players in Bulgaria on Monday night, the winger was encouraged by how the squad and boss Gareth Southgate dealt with events in Sofia. Hudson-Odoi showed he was getting back to his best after Achilles tendon surgery in the summer with two superbly-taken goals for England Under-21s against Austria on Tuesday. It seems only a matter of time before he is restored to Southgate’s full squad, even if football’s feeble attempts to tackle racism have not improved in his absence. He said: “I say the same thing about it – it’s disgusting to hear or see players getting discriminated against. It is not right.
“I say to myself, whenever that happens, ‘You have got to stick together as a team,’ which is what the boys did in Bulgaria.
“I was really proud of them and in those situations, where they say they would walk off the pitch, it’s right because no player should be treated differently.
“We are all equal, it is an equal game, so we all have to stay strong. Stay the same, and the boys dealt with it well.
“Hopefully everything will be sorted properly by UEFA.
“Everything that happened was obviously not right, but we have to stick together as a team and move on from it. Gareth is the manager, he makes the decisions and we always have to stand by him. As players, we speak to the manager and captain to ask them what’s right and what’s wrong.
“If the manager says we stay on the pitch, we stay there, try to cope with it and make the decision all as a team.
“If we think it is right, and we can focus and carry on playing, then we do that. If not, and the manager says something different, then we do what the manager says.
“It’s all up to the manager and the captain, but it’s also a team decision, we have a say in what’s happening.”
Hudson-Odoi was outstanding for the Young Lions as they maintained their 100 per cent record in Euro 2021 qualifying.
“My dribbling and everything will come back to what it was,” he added.
“Now I am feeling a bit more confident to get on the ball and do my stuff.
“As the games go on I will get fitter, get more opportunities to run at people and I already feel better now.”