England boss Roy Hodgson hopeful clubs release stars as Chelsea have done

Roy Hodgson: England boss grateful to Chelsea

England boss Roy Hodgson has called for Manchester City and Tottenham to follow Chelsea's lead and release players early.

Spurs' trip to face Jamaica in the Bahamas is just one example of the money-spinning post-season tours affecting England's build-up for their friendlies against the Republic of Ireland and Brazil.

But Chelsea have already agreed to allow Frank Lampard, Ashley Cole and Gary Cahill to return early from their tour of the United States where they will play Manchester City twice next week.

"We are grateful for that," Hodgson told Sky Sports. "It would be nice if Man City do the same. I don't know whether they can.

"It would also be nice if, for the game in the Bahamas, maybe the couple of Tottenham players that are in the squad didn't have to play and had the chance to rest up.

"Of course, I don't get to make those decisions. That will depend on the club coaches. But they could certainly do us a favour if they wanted to."

Hodgson has already named his 22-man squad and while he hopes all of his selections will report for duty he is comfortable in the knowledge that there are others waiting to take their place.

"I know that the players I have selected are very keen to come," added the Three Lions boss. "I can only hope that they are able to survive injury in these games.

"If not then I will have to turn to some others because I left some quite good players out of this squad so I'm not short of reserves."

England face Ireland on May 29th at Wembley before travelling out to Brazil for a showpiece friendly against next year's World Cup hosts in Rio de Janeiro.