Stuart Pearce was sacked as England U21 coach after he lost all three group matches in Israel during the summer.
He then slammed Phil Jones and Alex Oxlade Chamberlain who both missed the event, saying “Once through the ivory towers of the seniors the don’t want U21s.”
Jones said: “I didn’t expect it and I am disappointed. It’s simply not true.”
Jones, 21, who joined Manchester United in June 2011 from Blackburn Rovers, missed the first three months of last season and another six-week period between February and April, with a knee injury but he was called into Roy Hodgson’s senior squad for the post-season tour to Brazil and completed the full 90 minutes in Maracana in a 2-2 draw.
Hodgson was said to have asked Pearce to not select any player on the trip for under-21 duty.
“It was totally out of my hands, Roy Hodgson came out prior to the under-21 tournament and said he regarded me as a senior player.”
“How he can come out and say I didn’t want to play for the under-21’s is beyond me. I have represented the under-19’s, the under-21’s and the seniors. I said from the first day I pulled on an England shirt that it sent shivers down my spine.”
Written by George Coomber
