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NEVILLE GETS McCLAREN NOD

Phil Neville has been hailed as a model professional by England coach Steve McClaren ahead of his first competitive match for his country in more than two years.

The Everton player is set to operate at right-back in place of his injured brother, Gary, in Saturday evening's Euro 2008 qualifier against Andorra at Old Trafford.

Neville last appeared in a competitive international when he came on as substitute against Portugal in the Euro 2004 quarter-final in Lisbon, and it is 16 months since he won his 52nd cap against Colombia in New Jersey.

But the 29-year-old has never given up hope of a recall by England and being brought back from holiday to be on stand-by for the World Cup in Germany whetted his appetite for more of the same.

McClaren said: "Phil Neville is a fantastic professional and that was epitomised in the summer when he was on holiday with his family and was asked to break off from that and come and join the England squad as a stand-by player.

"He had no hesitation in doing that and he deserves his place in the current squad and, with injuries, I've no hesitation in putting him in the team.

"Phil is a fantastic servant and has got great flexibility. He can play right-back, left-back, in midfield, but that key word we keep talking about and we keep preaching to the players is professionalism. He epitomises that."

Left-back Ashley Cole will go into the Andorra game as a Chelsea player after his move from Arsenal was finally completed.

But McClaren insisted midfielder Owen Hargreaves was in the right frame of mind after failing to secure his move from Bayern Munich to Manchester United.

McClaren said: "Owen has not been down.

"I've seen no-one going around this week as if they've got the weight of the world on their shoulders, waiting for this or that move to develop."

McClaren is confident England are moving forward after the disappointment of the World Cup, and the 4-0 win over Greece has helped him to be accepted by any sceptical supporters.

He said: "I said even before I got the job that the response was very good from the public and whatever decisions were made were for the better of the squad and the team and England going forward.

"I think that has been accepted.

"The one thing that has helped is the Greece performance and getting that first game out of the way and everyone has moved on from the World Cup and decisions that were made and said 'okay, what's the future going to be like?'.

"We need to be consistent, we need to quality for Euro 2008. That's our ultimate goal now."

By Bettingzone.co.uk
Used with permission.

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