Terry has unfinished business with Euros
Published 22:45 06/10/11 By John Cross in Podgorica
John Terry has set his sights on making up for lost time in next summer’s Euro 2012 Championship finals.
Terry is still haunted by missing England’s defeat to Croatia in 2007 through injury - a loss which meant they did not qualify for Euro 2008.
But the England captain believes today's team are much better equipped to succeed next summer than the 2007 version - and says the pain of failure last time will be their driving force.
Chelsea defender Terry said: “It was devastating to be sitting there and to miss the Croatia game.
"I could have opted for injections. I’d just come back from a knee operation and had literally trained for two or three days. I just wasn’t fully fit for that kind of game.
"I was kicking myself as the game panned out for sitting there.
“Still, to this day, I wonder should I have said, ‘Sod it’ and played? Thankfully I’m here now and, like all of us, we’re all fit and in good condition, playing well for our clubs.
“With that in mind, we’re looking good at the moment. Concentrating on ourselves more than anyone else at the moment.”
Terry believes the 2007 failure under Steve McClaren has only served to make the current squad even more determined.
“I wouldn’t say 'scarred,'" he said. "Disappointed would be the word. We’d like to go out there and make amends for where we’ve gone wrong in our careers.
"The only way to do that is on the pitch and in a big tournament.
“We’ve got a chance to do that now, to get to a big tournament, and learn from where we went wrong. But until we actually get to that level of tournament again, you can’t contemplate this or that. We have to get there first.
“Once we get there, the excitement of getting there is beyond anything. That’s the overall aim of everyone in the squad.
“We’ve worked hard to get in the position we’re in.
"It’s in our hands to take it to the next level and put ourselves in the Euros.”
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