Hiddink plays down 'overvalued' talk of Terry return

England conceded four goals during last week's friendly outings against Germany and Netherlands and boss Roy Hodgson conceded his prospective Euro 2016 squad has a lack of quality in the left-sided centre-back position, before revealing he recently had a "long chat" with Terry.

Chelsea defender John Terry

Chelsea boss Guus Hiddink has played down suggestions that his captain John Terry could be set for a shock England recall.

England conceded four goals during last week's friendly outings against Germany and Netherlands and boss Roy Hodgson conceded his prospective Euro 2016 squad has a lack of quality in the left-sided centre-back position, before revealing he recently had a "long chat" with Terry.

The 35-year-old is out of contract at Chelsea at the end of the season, and retired from international football in 2012 – a factor that Hiddink joined Hodgson in playing up at his Friday news conference.

"I think it is a little bit overvalued, whether they [Hodgson and Terry] had a conversation," Hiddink said.

"It was no issue for either of them. John is doing his job for Chelsea and has decided already a few years ago not to be available for England, whatever the reason might be.

"You can ask him but I don't know. What I know is he likes to play football. We didn't talk about [him playing for England]."

Hiddink was once again reluctant to be drawn on the prospect of Terry being offered a contract extension at Chelsea, given his own second temporary tenure with the club will end when the current campaign ends, but the veteran Dutch coach believes the defender may well have a future in the dugout.

"That's not up to me [a new contract] at this moment," he said. "I think in the time coming up you should ask the directors and obviously John has his own opinion about this

"He is and will be a legend at this club so has big worth. Also he is and will be a leader. Some players, not just here but in other clubs, you see while they are playing that there might be managers inside already.

"Most of the time in the midfield positions or in the centre-back position, you can see these guys are already leaders in the team

"I always liked it as a manager to have players to execute your gameplan on the pitch. Sometimes us managers think we can manipulate every second of the game, which is not true.

"You need the tactically strong players and he [Terry] can be one of them."