Intro:

Roy Hodgson denied on Tuesday (10th June) that Steven Gerrard is an injury concern ahead of England's opening World Cup fixture against Italy this weekend and praised the abilities of Azzurri playmaker Andrea Pirlo.

Script:

SOUNDBITE: (English) Roy Hodgson, England manager (on Italy's Andrea Pirlo):

"Andrea, who I know very well of course, is obviously a top, top, top class player and in the game that we played in Kiev (in Euro 2012), he had a superb game and was obviously the man of the match. So it's quite normal I suppose that people focus on him but I think there's a lot of other players in that Italian team that are worthy of attention too. As far as we're concerned we're really focused on Italy the team and the quality of players that they have in the team. We're not getting hung up on one player because I think that (Cesare) Prandelli would tell you that his team does not depend totally on Andrea Pirlo, even though I'm sure he thinks he is as good a player as I think he is."