Michael Carrick pulled out of Fabio Capello’s England squad with an ankle injury, which we believed would keep him out for the first couple of weeks of the season. Wes Brown and Paul Robinson have announced their retirement from International football, with seemingly inferior players getting chosen ahead of them for Capello’s World Cup squad (Carragher and Green).

However, despite the supposed injury, Carrick was a surprise name in the starting line-up in yesterday’s 3-1 win over Chelsea.

As our players went to collect their winners medals and shake hands with a whole host of football somebodies, Capello confronted Carrick.

“I thought you were injured,” he said. “It would have been nice if you called.”

Carrick didn’t linger. After travelling all the way to South Africa and then not even getting a minute on the pitch, I guess Michael didn’t see a reason to call the increasingly unpopular England boss!