Calling time on magician who lost his powers

Glenn Hoddle has left Paul Gascoigne out of the England World Cup squad be cause he feared that the player was an injury waiting to happen. And when armies move quickly they cannot afford to stop for the wounded.

As a member of Ron Greenwood's World Cup squad in Spain in 1982 and Bobby Robson's England side in Mexico four years later, Hoddle has had first-hand experience of how quickly casualties can disrupt the best-laid plans. Kevin Keegan and Trevor Brooking, crucial to Greenwood, missed almost the whole of the earlier tournament while taking Bryan Robson to Monterrey with a suspect shoulder cost England his services after just two matches.

In Italia '90, Bryan Robson was again forced home early by an injury and it is wrily coincidental that now, as manager of Middlesbrough, he may well suffer the backlash of Gascoigne's bitter disappointment. It is difficult, however, to see how Hoddle could have acted otherwise in the circumstances.

There is some substance in the argument that Gascoigne was the only player England had who might have provided the magician's touch which is often the difference between reaching a World Cup final and finishing among the also-rans. Equally he could have become a broken wand long before Hoddle's team made significant progress.

The England manager has simply looked at the facts as they stood and relied upon the evidence of his own eyes in the three matches against Saudi Arabia at Wembley, and Morocco and Belgium in Casablanca. Having studied the videos he concluded that Gascoigne was not up to it.

Yesterday, moreover, he implied that Gascoigne could have done more to help himself between leaving Rangers for Middlesbrough and joining up with the England squad. "I think that some of his lack of fitness is self-inflicted," Hoddle said, "yes of course, that's obvious. There are a lot of things he could have done, perhaps, to get himself into better shape.

"I've gone out on a limb with Paul," the England coach continued. "I've done so many things to try and make him see what's needed in the modern game from him at the age of 31.

"This is a tournament against the best in the world. I had hoped that he was going to make me feel that he still had something to offer us. But it doesn't take a genius to work out that it hasn't panned out like that."

Gascoigne's entire career has been blighted by injuries but now Hoddle believes that the player's lack of fitness is becoming a contributory factor. "Why is he getting injured?" he asked. "Broadly speaking, it's because he's not physically fit. The majority of his recent injuries have occurred because he's not sharp enough to get away from defenders."

Other countries have gone into World Cups with injured players and found it worth the risk. KarlHeinz Rummenigge twice came off the bench for West Germany to rouse flagging teams in the tournaments of 1982 and 1986. Roberto Baggio was plainly not fit for Italy at the start of the last World Cup but eventually saw them to the final before missing the crucial kick in the shoot-out with Brazil.

Neither of these players, however, was suffering Gascoigne's overall lack of match fitness and despite the reaction Hoddle has received in some quarters he could not afford to keep Gazza in the squad simply for old time's sake.

"I could have looked back to what he did in Rome and against Cameroon and said `fine, I'll take him'," Hoddle explained, "but he isn't anywhere nearly in the same shape. His fitness levels are probably lower than they've been for a long time."

Hoddle reckons that he has a weaker England squad without a 100 per cent fit Gascoigne but a stronger one now that the risk of taking a below-par player to France has been removed. Modern top-class football, as Hoddle pointed out, is as much about athleticism as it is about technical skills and even Gascoigne's most devoted followers could not claim that he cut an athletic figure in Casablanca last week.

Paul Scholes looks the player most likely to fill Gascoigne's role when England open their World Cup programme against Tunisia in Marseille on Monday week. If Darren Anderton's fitness continues to improve at the present rate he could become an option on the right with David Beckham moving inside, and the long-striding legs of Steve McManaman might worry tiring defenders.

In the end Hoddle did not even want to risk Gascoigne as a substitute. "There's an art to coming off the bench," he said. "You can't take 20 minutes to get into a game."

That, ultimately, was Gascoigne's problem. He took too long too late, and Hoddle had to call time.