PHIL JAGIELKA’S time out through injury will help rather than hinder his chances of making England’s Euro 2012 squad, according to Everton boss David Moyes.
Jagielka has struggled to hold down a regular first-team place at Goodison Park after seeing John Heitinga and Sylvain Distin form an effective partnership during his eight-week injury lay-off.
Time is running out to prove that he merits a place in the Three Lions squad for Poland and Ukraine. Centre-back is one of the few positions in which England are blessed with talent, but Moyes thinks Jagielka’s freshness can give him the edge over rivals such as Chris Smalling, Phil Jones and Gary Cahill.
“In a way, if you are looking at people who could be ready (for Euro 2012), he would be fresh because he missed eight weeks in the middle (of the season),” Moyes said.
“There should be no sort of tiredness with Jagielka, that is for sure, and he is a top player.
“He has played really well.
“He had one injury which was a medial ligament injury. That was a bad one.
“It kept him out but since he has come out he has been fine.”
While Everton’s players must now concentrate on today’s home game against Sunderland, although Saturday’s FA Cup semi-final against Liverpool will surely be deep in the thoughts of the Everton squad.
“It would be naive if in someway it didn’t affect them, but I hope not,” Moyes said. “We are in a pretty good league position (seventh) - better than maybe we thought we were going to be in and we want to try and hang on to that.”
