Decision to sideline Sterling defended

GA R E T H Sout hgate defended his decision to sideline Raheem Sterling a ga i n st Monte neg r o a fte r l i ken i ng the England forward’s highprofile bust-up with Joe Gomez to a family row.

Having clashed towards the end of Liverpool’s 3-1 win against fellow Premier League title challengers Manchester City on Sunday, a still simmering Sterling was involved in a fracas with Gomez at St George’s Park the following day.

The incident took onlookers aback and the 24-year-old Sterling admitted “emotions got the better of me” in a late-night social media post that followed the English FA confirming the forward would sit out the Montenegro qualifier.

Sterling (right) stayed with the group and apologised to team-mates at a meeting on Monday night, then trained as usual the following morning. Gomez appeared to be sporting a cut close to his right eye in the session but Southgate remained tight-lipped on that – one of numerous queries he batted away at the hastily organised press conference.

“Raheem in his post last night explained for a very brief moment his emotions ran over,” he said. “It would be correct to say that’s not the same for Joe.

“We are dealing with a very young squad in a sport where emotions often run high. My priority is always the care and wellbeing of all my players.

“Then you have a decision to make as to whether there needs to be something further, which is my reasoning for not selecting Raheem for the game on Thursday.”

Southgate said the whole squad was now interacting as normal and the punishment would be the “end of the matter”, while the England boss took a conciliatory tone when asked if he was disappointed in the forward’s conduct.

“I love all of my players,” he said. “We are like a family and all family have disagreements.

“Most important for any family is to come through those disagreements and work through them. As a group we’ve decided the best way forward and we’re in agreement on that. We move on from there.”

Southgate repeatedly refused to go into details about either the incident or fallout but it is believed some England players found the response a bit heavyhanded – something that contradicts the initial statement made on Monday.

“It’s not for me to discuss the details of the incident, so I think there’s nothing to be gained from any further discussion on that,” said the England manager, who spoke to his leadership group and staff about a suitable punishment.

“I’ve made a decision and I think it was appropriate for how we want to work moving forward.

“For me it was important that, of course Raheem is a very important player for us, but I felt it was the right thing.”