Warnock happy in midfield

Rovers ace puts England on hold for the time being

Last updated: 29th October 2008   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Warnock happy in midfield

Warnock: Happy in midfield

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Stephen Warnock is happy to sacrifice his England ambitions in order to play in midfield for Blackburn Rovers.

The former Liverpool youngster has been switched from his usual left-back role to central midfield in recent weeks by Rovers boss Paul Ince.

Warnock, who made his England debut as a late substitute in the June friendly in Trinidad & Tobago, accepts his change in position may hinder his international prospects.

However, Warnock is prepared to put his prospects of breaking back into Fabio Capello's plans on hold while he performs a job at club level.

Happy

Asked if his change of position could jeopardise his England hopes, Warnock said: "It's a possibility, but if it's something I have to sacrifice, it's just one of those things.

"We'll have to wait and see because it's not definite that I'll be staying in midfield anyway, you'd have to ask the manager where he sees me playing in the long term.

"But at the moment he sees me as a midfielder and I'm happy to do that."

After spending most of his formative years in midfield, continuing in his current role is not a prospect that fazes the 26-year-old.

He added: "I grew up playing left and centre midfield, and it was only at about 19, after I'd broken my leg a couple of times, that at Liverpool they decided to move me to left-back.

"When I broke into the first team I broke in as a left midfielder, and then one of our players got injured and I played there (left-back) for one game, had an okay match, and it carried on from there.

"So I've only really been a left-back for four years."