England’s Tom Cleverley is out to make up for lost time against Italians

Cleverley has reported for duty ahead of the rematch with Euro 2012 conquerors Italy  tonight, just as he did 12 months ago when the Netherlands were the opposition.

On that occasion, the London riots scuppered his hopes of making his senior debut.

The injuries that wrecked Cleverley’s season struck shortly afterwards, meaning he will head to Berne still looking to make his first international  appearance.

Carrick is keen to kick on, too, after ending his self-imposed England exile, and his United team-mate believes the quality of his fellow midfielder cannot be called into question.

“Michael is a fantastic player, one of the best I’ll ever play with,” said Cleverley. “This  country must have had some good midfielders if he’s only won 22 caps.

“Sometimes you need to see it first-hand with Michael to realise how good he is. A lot of clubs have those players who are massively important but go under the radar a bit.”

Unlike Carrick, who has largely been injury-free throughout his career, Cleverley would surely have made his England breakthrough by now if it had not been for the foot and ankle problems that kept him out for so long.

And the 23-year-old accepts he is making up for lost time. “It’s true,” he said. “Sometimes you can get frustrated and think I’ve missed this or that. These things happen in football. It’s how you bounce back from them.”

Now Cleverley is one of the players responsible for extending the feelgood factor generated by an Olympic Games he was a part of with the Team GB football team.

The Bradford-raised player still has to pinch himself to think he was part of the global event, even though his own contribution started before the opening ceremony and ended on the first weekend with a  penalty shoot-out defeat to South Korea.

Meanwhile, England manager Roy Hodgson suffered his third withdrawal yesterday morning when Arsenal’s Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain was forced to pull out with an ankle injury.

A decision had already been made to draft in Manchester City defender Joleon Lescott and no further replacements are  expected.