June 7 – England manager Gareth Southgate (pictured) says his squad have a plan to deal with any outbreaks of discrimination at the World Cup after fullback Danny Rose said he had told his family not to come to Russia for fear of racism.
“The players, like everyone else, don’t really know what to expect,” Southgate said. “We have had conversations explaining that. We are all hopeful that it will go well, but we are having conversations in case (racism) happens. We have a plan in place. We have personal support, team support and official protocol in place.”
Rose, who was personally targeted when he played for England’s under-21s in Serbia in 2012, told the Evening Standard newspaper: “I’ve told my family I don’t want them going out there because of racism and anything else that may happen.”
Southgate said walking off the field was not likely to be an option, however.
“In an idealistic world people would say to walk off the pitch but that means we would be thrown out of the tournament.”
“I don’t think the players would want that because they have worked all their lives to play at a World Cup. It’s important to get the balance right but it will be tough to please everybody.”
The increasingly impressive Southgate has backed Rose 100% and wants his team to serve as an example of multiculturalism working.
“No one knows what is going to happen in Russia but he felt there could be something his family experiences and he (Rose) thought that might distract from his football. The players are clear on where I stand and the support they have from me. We don’t want to have to talk about it, but it is important that we do.”
“The biggest impact we can have is as one of the most diverse squads to have left England, and the way that they all get on, and hopefully, that message will come through.”
Russia were most recently fined £22,000 after France’s players were racially abused during an international friendly in March but Rose described that punishment as “disgusting” and “laughable”.
With rare candour, Rose, who struggled on and off the field at Tottenham last season, also revealed he had suffered from depression triggered by a combination of injury and family tragedy.
He said the treatment of a knee injury sustained in January 2017 and which saw him sidelined for eight months was the start of a personal nightmare.
In interviews with several other newspapers, he said: “It’s no secret that I’ve been through a testing time at Tottenham this season. It led to me seeing a psychologist and I was diagnosed with depression, which nobody knows about.”
“I haven’t told my mum or my dad, and they are probably going to be really angry reading this, but I’ve kept it to myself until now.
“My uncle killed himself in the middle of my rehab, and that triggered the depression as well.”
“Off the field there have been other incidents: back home in August my mum was racially abused in Doncaster. She was very angry and upset about it, and then someone came to the house and nearly shot my brother in the face – a gun was fired at my house.
“England has been my salvation.”
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