England striker Wayne Rooney has leaped to the defence of manager Roy Hodgson after he was criticised for making an allegedly racist joke during half time of Tuesday's match against Poland.
Hodgson used a 'space race' joke which includes the phrase "feed the monkey" to emphasise the point that full-back Chris Smalling should pass the ball to Andros Townsend whenever possible.
The comment created controversy for its apparent racial overtones, something that Hodgson apologised for, but Rooney believes that his manager has done nothing wrong.
"Seen the story on Roy this morning. He done nothing wrong. This is ridiculous," Rooney wrote on Twitter.
Meanwhile, England have not been included among the top seeds for the 2014 World despite moving up seven places in the latest FIFA world rankings.
Germany
Switzerland
Hungary
Scotland
Spain
Italy
Croatia
Albania
England
Denmark
Slovenia
Serbia
Austria
France
Netherlands
Poland
Romania
Belgium
Slovakia
Ukraine
Portugal
Turkey
Georgia
Czech Republic