Gerrard pondered retirement

(GSM) – England captain Steven Gerrard admits he considered international retirement after this summer’s disappointing World Cup campaign.

After limping through the group stage, England were well-beaten by a solid German team in the second round of the competition.

England are now preparing for Wednesday night’s friendly against Hungary at Wembley.

With Wes Brown and Paul Robinson having hung their international boots after featuring in the squad for the friendly encounter, Gerrard has revealed that he also thought about retiring from England.

The 30-year-old told Sky Sports: “I’m not going to lie to you.

“Since we were knocked out of the World Cup, it has been really difficult being an England player.

“So retirement does cross your mind at times.

“But very quickly you switch back to thinking of staying and hanging in and, hopefully, turning things round and having a successful tournament.”

“This is low as it gets,” he said. “The position we are in at the moment is quite similar to when we didn’t qualify for the European Championship under Steve McClaren.

“We are not up with the best. We went out in the last 16, everyone can do the maths.

“There blatantly is a difference between us and Spain for example, because they have won the World Cup. They have proved they are a lot better than us.

“It is other people, not us, who say how good we are.

“Maybe lowering expectations would help. But will that happen? I don’t think so.

“We have massive support. We have got 60,000 coming (against Hungary), which is going to be the biggest crowd of the night.

“Are the media going to lower their expectations?

“But this should be the way it is with England. We’ve got good players. We have to deal with it better.”