Intro:

Roy Hodgson admits that Raheem Sterling asked to be rested for England's European Championship qualifier against Estonia in Tallinn on Sunday. Sterling did come on in the 64th minute before Wayne Rooney scored the only goal of the game in the 74th minute.

Script:

SOUNDBITE: (English) Roy Hodgson, England manager:

"Raheem had done the warm up but he came to me and said look I really feeling a little bit tired. I don't think I'm in my best form at the moment because I'm feeling a bit tired. So I said well the best thing is that Adam Lallana starts the game and I've got you to come on from the bench."

SOUNDBITE: (English) Roy Hodgson, England manager:

"I think we do have to take players' welfare into consideration and there are going to be times, especially for these top league teams with their Champions League, and even the Europa League teams, playing on Thursdays and Sundays, I think there is going to be a situation where players suffer from both physical and mental fatigue. I think it's a bit unfair if all the expectations to give that player a little bit of a break fall on my shoulders. As it turned out on this occasion it was a perfectly good thing to do. I think it was the right thing to do, to be perfectly honest, because Raheem wasn't as sharp even in the game against San Marino as he has been, he was still good but he wasn't spectacularly good. (Adam) Lallana came on and was spectacularly good, so in this particular moment in time it's a no-brainer situation."