Speaking in a rather candid interview with The Daily Telegraph yesterday, his first with a national paper in over five years, Ryan Shawcross opened up about ‘that’ challenge on Aaron Ramsey and his somewhat short lived international career.
With the Stoke defender impressing at the heart of a dogged Tony Pulis side back in 2012, the 24 year old (now 28) no nonsense centre half found himself being awarded his first substitute appearance during England’s away friendly with Sweden.
At the time Hodgon’s men were well on their way to a respectable 2-1 away victory with just 16 minutes left on the clock, that is until the great Zlatan channeled his hate for every thing English by firing in a quite outstanding hat-trick, adding to his opener earlier in the game.
One of his goals of course was an outrageous 30 yard overhead kick….
Commenting on the onslaught, Shawcross mentions with nervous laughter;
“I’m the butt of the joke in my family, just because the 10 minutes I had in international football was ruined by one man,”
“They are consistently saying that Zlatan ruined my career! I had a chance and I don’t think many other defenders have stopped him.
“I was given 10 minutes to show what I could do and probably didn’t provide a good enough performance. I was against one of the best strikers in the world who was on a hot streak at the time and these things happen.”
To be fair, old Roy likes his tried and tested. Keeping the Swede Demi-God out for 15 minutes probably wouldn’t have made a difference the man’s international career.
Any hew, Here’s the interview on its entirety.