LONDON: England football manager Roy Hodgson (L) seen alongside England cricket team coach Trevor Bayliss at The Oval on Tuesday.—Reuters

LONDON: England football manager Roy Hodgson dropped in here at The Oval on Tuesday ahead of the fifth and final Ashes Test.

Hodgson, accompanied by assistant Ray Lewington, chatted to players from both the England and Australia teams as they trained ahead of the Ashes finale at the south London ground, which starts on Thursday.

Hodgson had been invited to The Oval by Australia doctor Peter Brukner, who worked with the England boss when they were both at Premier League giants Liverpool.

The former Reds manager even had time to cast his eye over the England cricketers’ warm-up football kickabout before they got down to the serious business of cricket training.

Hodgson’s England side are currently unbeaten in their qualification campaign for the 2016 European Championships in France and are not in action until they face minnows San Marino next month.

And he stayed on to give a short team talk to Alastair Cook’s men, who’ve already clinched the Ashes after their innings and 78-run win over Australia in the fourth Test at Trent Bridge gave them an unbeatable 3-1 lead in the five-match series.

Australia’s Chris Rogers spoke to Hodgson and afterwards the veteran opening batsman told reporters: “I’ve been over here a long time and I like watching the football — particularly how England go out in the big tournaments.

“I got a chance to have a good chat with him (Hodgson) and he was a lovely guy.

“He talked about watching county cricket in the 1950s [when The Oval-based Surrey were the dominant side], so he’s got a fair bit of history there.”

Published in Dawn, August 19th, 2015

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