ROY Hodgson has admitted his pool of English players is shrinking fast.

Following the withdrawals of Chelsea duo Ashley Cole and John Terry over the weekend, then Theo Walcott with a virus yesterday morning, Hodgson needed to reinforce his squad ahead of tonight’s World Cup qualifier with England.

There were a few experienced options available to the England boss, including the likes of Peter Crouch and Darren Bent.

In the end, though, Hodgson went for Tottenham’s Jake Livermore, who made his England debut in the friendly win over Italy last month, and handed first callups to Southampton’s skipper Adam Lallana and, most startlingly of all, Liverpool winger Raheem Sterling.

The 17-year-old only made his senior debut in March, and has still made just seven firstteam appearances for the Merseysiders, starting on only three occasions.

While Sterling has impressed, his situation contrasts sharply with that of Steven Gerrard, a confirmed world star who will win his 99th cap tonight.

Yet Gerrard had two seasons’ worth of experience and 43 senior appearances behind him for Liverpool before he made his international bow in May 2000.

The contrast is stark. And at its heart is a reduction of English players in the Premier League.

Of the 18 teams in action on the weekend preceding the international break – Chelsea played in the Super Cup meaning their scheduled fixture with Reading was played in the opening week of the season – only 66 of 209 players who started were qualified to represent England.

It means Hodgson is picking from just 32 per cent of available players, a figure far lower than most other leading European nations.

And Hodgson accepts it will not get better.

‘‘We can’t deny that,’’ he said, responding to a point about the pool shrinking.

‘‘Would I prefer to have a reverse of that statistic, with 66 per cent of players being English?

Of course I would.

‘‘But that’s not going to happen.

The Premier League is fantastic. But it embraces all the top European players.

‘‘One of the other facts we can’t deny is the top clubs know where the best talent is, and often go out and buy it.

‘‘That top talent, at a young age, finds it difficult to break into the team because of the established European talent in front of them.’’ As a recent Premier League manager, Hodgson understands exactly what thought process goes into buying a player – and it does not involve the England team.

‘‘Every club manager has only one duty: to his club,’’ said the former Fulham, Liverpool and West Brom manager.

‘‘We, as England, can’t start asking clubs to consider us when they’re making decisions about their players.

‘‘We just have to hope that the English talent that’s being produced – and it will be because we have good academy systems – are still to be considered by their club managers and are good enough.’’ Hodgson rejected the suggestion he may have to start picking players from the npower Championship, as Steve McClaren did with David Nugent in 2007.

And skipper Gerrard is not convinced the issue would be being raised at all without a lengthy injury list Hodgson estimates stands at 10.

‘‘It opens the debate we’ve had before, about the amount of foreigners coming into the league,’’ said Gerrard.

‘‘I don’t think these questions would be asked if everyone was fit and available.

‘‘Jack Wilshere, Wayne Rooney and Andy Carroll would all be here.

‘‘We’re speaking now because we have a lot of drop outs and injuries.

‘‘When everyone’s fit and available, we’ll be fine.’’