England coach Gareth Southgate revealed he twice tried to convince right-back Kyle Walker to reverse his decision to end his international career after the Man City star felt untrusted.

Kyle Walker wanted to leave the England team after Euro 2020 and the Qatar 2022 World Cup, but coach Southgate convinced the 33-year-old right-back to change his mind. Man.City’s star has faced the feeling of being no longer respected for many years, especially after the Three Lions continuously introduced young stars on the right side of the defense like Trent Alexander-Arnold and Reece James. or Kieran Trippier. There were even many times when Kyle Walker was left out of the Three Lions’ focus group.

After 12 years and 77 international matches, Kyle Walker just scored his first goal for England in a 1-1 draw against Ukraine in a Euro 2024 qualifier on Saturday. But there might not have been the feeling of celebrating that goal if the Man.City star was determined to say goodbye to the Three Lions.

Coach Southgate recently revealed: “All credit to Kyle, who I twice persuaded him to reverse his decision to stop. Kyle wanted to leave international football after the Euros and after the World Cup. He likes it here and wants to continue playing, and now he’s thinking about how many more caps he can get for the national team. He is very important to us. If we are talking about world-class players in their position in this squad then Kyle is certainly one of them.”

Asked to confirm coach Southgate’s revelations that he wanted to end his team career, Walker said: “Yes! At that time, Gareth and I talked. The likes of Trent (Alexander-Arnold), Tripps (Kieran Trippier) and Reece James have come through. You will think your time is almost up. Also, I’ve been doing this since I was 19 years old when I joined the team, how many vacations and summers have I sacrificed… I’m 33 years old now. But me and Gareth have a good relationship off the field, we’ve talked and I feel like I can still bring something to the team. So why stop?

England is preparing to play a friendly against rival Scotland in Glasgow on Tuesday, so it is likely that Kyle Walker’s position will be replaced by Kieran Trippier. Coach Southgate is also expected to make a number of other changes, including giving Chelsea’s young midfielder Levi Colwill a debut at some stage in the match at Hampden Park.