Robinson retires from England duty

London: Blackburn goalkeeper Paul Robinson retired today from international football despite being named in the England squad to face Hungary at Wembley on Wednesday.

The 30-year-old former Leeds and Tottenham shot-stopper was included in Fabio Capello’s squad named yesterday having been left out of the World Cup squad. Robinson, who will not be replaced in the squad for Wednesday’s friendly game, now wants to concentrate on club football. He won 41 caps after making his bow against Australia in 2003 and was number one for the 2006 World Cup campaign.But some high-profile mistakes saw him lose his way and his first-choice status as England missed out on qualification for Euro 2008 under Steve McClaren. Two errors saw him fluff a backpass from Gary Neville during a 2-0 defeat in Croatia, and he then palmed a long-range effort from Roman Pavlyuchenko into the net in a 2-1 defeat in Russia.He joined Blackburn two years ago and appeared to have regained his best form, saving two penalties as the club reached the Carling Cup semi-finals by beating Chelsea in a shootout last season. But he missed the cut for this summer’s World Cup as David James, Joe Hart and Robert Green were selected ahead of him. PTI