Jordan Henderson has responded to Roy Keane's jibes over his England Euro 2020 selection by declaring he is fit for the tournament.
Henderson was singled out by former Manchester United midfielder Keane having been included in the squad despite not starting a match since February.
The Liverpool midfielder came through 45 minutes of Sunday's 1-0 friendly win over Romania to confirm his availability for the finals, with England's first game against Croatia at Wembley this weekend.
Keane had questioned Henderson's involvement as a "cheerleader" and stated: “Does he do card tricks? Does he have a sing-song? Does he do quizzes in the evening? What does he do?”
But Henderson laughed off the jibes, and said: "To be fair to Roy, he can say what he wants about me. He gave me my debut and I wouldn’t be here without him giving me that.
“I found it quite funny, actually. So, yeah, listen, we know a little bit more detail, I know more detail and so does the manager, which Roy may not.
“But in terms of stuff like that, everyone’s going to have an opinion, everybody’s going to think they know better than everybody else."
Henderson added: "The card tricks he was on about – I’ve got a few of them up me sleeve!
“Listen, as a player you want to play and I’m not coming here just to be around the camp, like Roy was saying.
“I want to come here and I want to contribute in the games. How much of that is not really down to me, it’s up to the manager to make a decision.
“But whenever I’m called upon, I’ll be ready and hopefully I can be a big contribution to this tournament and our success going forward.”
Henderson missed the last three months of Liverpool's Premier League campaign with a groin problem but has been back in team training for several weeks.
And of his England involvement this summer, he said: “I'm fit. You probably wouldn't know, but I've trained for a long time. It's a little bit different training on your own instead of team training, which I managed to do towards the back end of the season with Liverpool.
"I'm going into the tournament in a good place, but I also realise I haven't played that much in recent months. But I feel really good and hopefully I can be ready whenever called upon.”
