Theo Walcott revealed yesterday he had been inspired by Fabio Capello’s admission that leaving the Arsenal winger out of his squad for last year’s World Cup in South Africa had been a “mistake”.
Walcott finds himself back in the fold ahead of the first England match of 2011, a friendly away to Denmark, and he is set to start in Copenhagen tomorrow.
As for Capello conceding he’d made an error in Walcott’s case, the 21-year-old told a news conference at England’s hotel yesterday: “It’s a nice quote and that’s helped me out so much this season, it’s shown that the manager’s taken responsibility for what he did.
“I had a good pre-season and started the season brightly, it’s always nice when the manager’s got faith in you – even though I didn’t go to the World Cup.
“I’ve had ups and downs in my career so far and I felt needed that mental break from it all so it might have done me a favour. It was his decision to make and I respected it.”
Walcott added: “I wanted to know why I didn’t go and I had a conversation with him, he’s a manager you can approach.
“It’s got my mind at ease, I can build on the manager’s belief in me and I think I need to start believing in myself... which I have, my performances have been better this season.
“It’s going to put a smile on your face if the manager’s thinking (it’s) a mistake he made, it’s great for a player. I want to help him and prove he was wrong, I want to play well for England and make his job easier.
“It happened and you can’t change it now, I’ve tried to prove people wrong this season about what I can do,” said Walcott, who has scored 11 goals in 30 appearances so far this term.
But Walcott has not scored for England since a hat-trick in the 4-1 win over Croatia in Zagreb in September 2008 and he said: “I think I need to grab a goal, I haven’t got a goal since the Croatia moment.
“It’s always nice to get goals but when you get the performances as well, it’s great to be in a winning team even if you’re not scoring.
“My shooting boots have been on for Arsenal and hopefully on Wednesday (tomorrow) I can grab a goal or an assist or something and get some more confidence.”