West Brom critical of England

West Brom have criticised England over their handling of midfielder Jake Livermore on international duty

West Brom’s medical department have asked England to take better care of Jake Livermore than they did on his previous call-up.

The club’s director of performance Dr Mark Gillett says the England staff ignored their advice when Livermore linked up with his country for the 1-0 defeat in Germany last March.

The FA have declined to comment on the criticism and Livermore has been selected for the internationals against Scotland and France.

“We’ve shared our data with England on Jake,” said Gillett. “We were a little bit upset about how little regard they paid to it.

“The thing with international teams, because they have such a short time with the players, they can really only prepare them in the way that we prepare them.

“They haven’t got enough time to change their preparation so it’s in their interest to respect our information and I didn’t feel they did.”

West Brom believe Livermore was overworked in the build-up to the Germany match.

“He did an awful lot more in that last session before the game with England than he’s usually used to and that changed his output,” added Gillett.

“It’s hard to prepare players individually in that environment, but surely the national team should be at that elite level.”