• Premier League

Sterling '100% entitled' to night out, says Rodgers

Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers has defended the conduct of midfielder Raheem Sterling, claiming he was entitled to have a night out after coming back from international duty with England.

Sterling was roundly criticised in the media for going to a nightclub the day after he was left out of England's game against Estonia in Tallinn for being too tired.

However, club boss Rodgers said after Liverpool's 3-0 defeat to Real Madrid that his player had every right to go out and that the whole incident is "not a story".

"I think for Raheem it's obviously just important he focuses on his football - it's unfortunate, six days before a game when he's on a day off can't go out," he said. "It's obviously a story for some, but if you read it carefully, then there's not a story in it.

"100% it was a night out he was entitled to have, yes.

Raheem Sterling did not start England's game in Estonia, saying he was too tired © Getty Images

Enlarge

Related Links

• News: 'Liverpool must learn to win without Sturridge'
  
• News: Balotelli did nothing wrong, says Ancelotti
  
• News: Henderson: We can beat Real at Bernabeu
  
• News: Rodgers: Balotelli future 'remains to be seen'
  
• Mishits: Balotelli caught swapping shirts at half-time
  
• News: Rodgers hints at Balotelli punishment
  

"He was terrific tonight [against Madrid], and he goes about his work really well. With his rise he'll learn maybe people want to knock you, but he's focused on his work."

Meanwhile, England boss Roy Hodgson has hit out at the press for the treatment of the 19-year-old Sterling over the incident.

"With young Raheem Sterling this week, it guts me to see that sort of treatment," he told students at Cambridge University at the end of a talk about his philosophy of leadership on Wednesday night.

"It's totally unfair and totally wrong. It's suiting people's agendas. But, you know, he'll be stronger for it.

"Is that right? Of course it's not right! But I can't turn the clock back, I'm living in 2014, I can't go back to Downton Abbey!"

Hodgson also claimed that the press were trying to drive a wedge between him and managers of club sides, playing down any row with Rodgers.

"There is no tension with Brendan," Hodgson said. "We get on very well. I've been very fortunate that, in two and a half years, I've not had a single situation where a manager has tried to drag a player out of the team, or told me that they don't want their players to take part.

"I think a lot of the players, if their manager said 'I don't want you to play for England', the player would say 'I'm sorry, I love playing for England and I want to go'. Brendan and I have always got on very well since he took the job at Liverpool, so there's no problem at all. And Jose Mourinho has come out and said that on my behalf as well.

"I've been lucky. I think there have been club versus country conflicts in the past, but I've been pretty shielded from it luckily. Journalists would like more conflict, because they work in a slightly Machiavellian situation.

"So when there is just the simple situation - the simple situation of a player asking to be excused from a training session the day before a game because he was feeling tired. I said 'no problem with that, in which case I won't start you, but thanks for telling me'.

"They don't want that, that's too simple. It must be Brendan Rodgers. Unfortunately, that's how simple it is. He [Sterling] didn't say he didn't want to play the game - he played the game, 25 minutes. Journalists are always going to try and drive wedges between managers."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd