No regrets for deadly Defoe

Tottenham striker grateful for support from Rooney

Last updated: 4th September 2010   Subscribe to RSS Feed

No regrets for deadly Defoe

Defoe: Lethal against Bulgaria

Hopefully, it's not his knee. Maybe it's his ankle. It looked like he was in a lot of pain.

Jermain Defoe on Michael Dawson
Quotes of the week

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Jermain Defoe has no regrets about cancelling his groin operation after hitting a hat-trick in England's 4-0 victory over Bulgaria at Wembley.

Fabio Capello's under-fire team opened their Euro 2012 qualifying campaign with three points thanks to the Tottenham striker's treble and a goal from Adam Johnson.

Defoe was all set to spend the international break recovering from surgery after struggling to shake off a long-standing injury at the start of the season.

But the 27-year-old chose not to go under the knife and after his star performance against Bulgaria he is happy to have made the decision.

Defoe said of his operation: "I'm glad I didn't have it now!

"It's been a little bit sore to be honest, but I've done a lot of work in the gym - a lot of core work - to try to improve it and I didn't get a reaction."

Fingers crossed

It did not look that way when Defoe limped off moments after completing his hat-trick, but he revealed he had only suffered a kick to his ankle and would be fit for Tuesday's match against Switzerland in Basle.

"It's fine. Just a precaution," he said.

Defoe was also keeping his fingers crossed for Spurs team-mate Michael Dawson, who suffered a freak injury reminiscent of Michael Owen's at the 2006 World Cup when his left leg collapsed underneath him.

"He's on crutches at the minute," said Defoe.

"Hopefully, it's not his knee. Maybe it's his ankle. It looked like he was in a lot of pain. I just hope he's all right."

Defoe hopes becoming the first England player to score a hat-trick at the new Wembley will help him cement a place in the side for the entire Euro 2012 campaign.

Unselfish

He added: "I just want to keep it going, keep getting in the positions where I'm going to score."

Doing that on Friday night was made easy thanks to the unselfishness of strike partner Wayne Rooney.

Defoe may have stolen the headlines, but the match also witnessed Rooney's rebirth as a force on the international stage, the Manchester United star eventually shaking off the World Cup cobwebs to have a hand in all four of England's goals.

Rooney was particularly generous in supporting Defoe in his goal glut, something which did not go unacknowledged by Defoe.

"It's always nice when you play with a partner and they want you to score the third goal," he said.

"When I was on the second, he said to me, 'keep going and you'll get the hat-trick'. When I did, he was the first one to come over."

To join skysports.com's live debate on the Euro 2012 qualifiers from 12.15pm on Saturday, click here

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