Scholes: I'd have played for England at the World Cup - if Capello had asked me himself
Published 23:00 26/07/10 By David McDonnell in Kansas
Paul Scholes claimed he may have played for England at the World Cup - had Fabio Capello bothered to pick up the phone and call the Manchester United midfielder himself.
Scholes revealed Capello got his assistant Franco Baldini - with whom Scholes had never spoken - to call him to ask whether he would consider coming out of international retirement to play in South Africa.
And Scholes, who said he was given just two hours to make a decision, said there was a chance he would have answered his country's call - had Capello phoned himself.
"I don't know," said Scholes. "But maybe it might have meant more [had Capello called]. It was difficult. It wasn't the manager who rang me but Baldini. I don't even know him.
"He rang me the day before the squad was announced. I probably said no because he only gave me a couple of hours to think about it and I needed a bit more time to think about it.
"I didn't expect the call. It wasn't even on my mind. You get a phone call the day before the squad's announced, asking if you fancy it. As I said, I needed more time.
"For about a week, maybe a couple of weeks after, I thought maybe I should have gone. You start seeing all the build-up a week before and I thought maybe I made the wrong decision.
"I'm not saying I'd have made a difference, and I don't look back and think it didn't go well for England because I didn't go. I'm just saying it was a chance to play in the World Cup and I turned it down."
Scholes retired from international football in the aftermath of Euro 2004 because he was fed up of being played out of position by Sven Goran Eriksson and had become disillusioned with playing for England, as well as missing his family while on international duty.
"I'd had enough of being away at the time and I wanted to stay at home a bit more," said Scholes. "I did say when I retired that I'd never go back. Steve McClaren asked me before as well, and that was it.
"But I think it would have been tough on someone else, who had played in all the qualifiers and gone to all the tough places they had to go and be away for 10 days at a time. I don't think it would have been right."
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