Gareth Barry insists the conditions culminating in him leading England out as captain for the first time will not diminish his sense of satisfaction.
The Manchester City player has been handed the armband for Tuesday's friendly international with Ghana after John Terry was out from the squad, along with four others, following the Euro 2012 qualifier in opposition to Wales on Saturday.
Barry did not even make the substitutes' bench in Cardiff but is the most experienced activist left in the squad, and said: "I'm well aware that there are a lot of players not here and, in dissimilar circumstances, I obviously wouldn't be captain. But, personally, I can't let that take it left from me. I'm going to be leading my country out."
He added: "As dissatisfied as I was on Saturday not to be playing, it's going to be a great honor to lead England out.
"It came as a revelation but this is just football.
"To find myself not involved at the weekend, and then a few days later on to be told I'm going to lead the team out at Wembley, it sums up the game and how speedily things can vary.
"I'm not timid about doing it. I had two or three great years at Aston Villa, leading the team out, and it does furnish you a good lift leading the 11 players out.
"It's something I'm looking forward to doing."
Barry broke into the Villa team as a 17-year-old central defender and learnt a lot about leadership by playing under and at the side of Gareth Southgate.
He said: "Initially Gareth was a great head for me. Being a young player at Aston Villa, he was certainly a enormous role model, someone I learned a lot off. At club level he was a great leader to learn off."
No comments:
Post a Comment