Jermain Defoe’s Sunderland future has been in doubt for a number of months, his goalscoring return with England will make it a near certainty he’ll leave the Stadium of Light should the Black Cats get relegated.
Defoe’s recall saw him get his 20th goal for England on his 56th cap – a first since November 2013 – when he turned in a cross from Raheem Sterling to set the Three Lions on the road to a 2-0 win over Lithuania.
Having handed him his recall Gareth Southgate commented on the great moment for Defoe when he scored. He quoted by Sky Sports as saying.
‘It’s a great moment for him. He was thrilled to be back involved in the squad, I think he has enjoyed his week immensely.’
Southgate went on to praise his professionalism and how confident he was of Defoe scoring during the game after opting to start him at Wembley.
‘He’s been a good senior professional to have around the team, both in terms of the way he’s trained, his professionalism, which has been great for some of the younger players to see, and his finishing in training and then today, which we expected really. I would have put my house on him scoring at some stage today, so I think he’s had a really positive impact on everybody.’
Defoe has already admitted he hopes to make it into the England squad for the 2018 World Cup with Southgate saying he will select players based on form at the time of each announcement.
‘I think we’ve got to look every time we get together as to who is in form. I don’t know if we can have a distinct pecking order because players that are playing well deserve the opportunity. If we are going to be successful, we have got to have that competition for places.’
Despite the fact he’ll be 35 at the time the England boss finished by saying there’s no reason why Defoe couldn’t be involved in Russia if he’s still scoring goals in the Premier League and playing well.
‘The reality is we will always lose players to injury, we’ve never been able to field or pick a full cohort, so it’s really important that we are able to call upon the likes of Jermain and for him to have the impact he had in a game like today. But if he is scoring goals in the Premier League and playing as well as he has this season, then there’s absolutely no reason why he couldn’t.’
Hopefully Defoe can make the 2018 squad, but will he still be a Sunderland player?
