Downing baffled by England snub

Aston Villa winger Stewart Downing has described England manager Fabio Capello's World Cup squad selection as 'a little bit strange'.

The former Middlesbrough player did not feature in the Three Lions' initial 30-man party for this summer's finals, where their tournament came to an end after the humiliating defeat to Germany.

Instead, the likes of Manchester City wide-man Shaun Wright-Phillips travelled to South Africa in a condensed group of 23 players while Downing remained at home.

The 25-year-old has admitted that he found it difficult to understand why he did not feature in Capello's plans after being involved in previous squads and he has not had an explanation from the Italian.

Downing said inThe Sun:"There were a few surprises in the 30 names picked.

Strange

"A lot of people who had not played were in the squad as were people out of form, but others were left out.

"It was a little bit strange and I was very disappointed as I thought, maybe, I had a chance to get in the 30 at least.

"He obviously has his reasons why, but the disappointing thing was I didn't get told why I wasn't in the squad.

"That's his choice and there's no point in moaning about it now.

"I was in the squads leading up to my foot injury. I recovered and he put me back in the squad after only three games.

"That was a great confidence boost. I then thought we'd had a good end to the season, the team was playing well."

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