Eric Dier says England’s near miss at the Euros has forced him to play his best football.
Tottenham's centre-half has enjoyed a renaissance under Antonio Conte and is now back in the Three Lions’ fold after his career with the national team hung in the balance. Dier was a part of the disastrous 2016 Euros campaign - where England were humbled by Iceland - but he then he helped turn around the situation at the World Cup two years later.
However, the 28-year-old was out-of-favour when England lost out on penalties to Italy in last year’s final. Asked if he thought his national career might be finished, he said: “I’d be lying I said I didn’t think it was a possibility.
“When I missed out on the Euros, those thoughts went through my mind. That was one of the worst moments for me, in my career. But when I say that, I always add that I must have had a pretty good career if that was one of the worst moments.
“I’m grateful to be here, now. And it was good for me in many ways, it propelled me to play - for me - what I think is the best football I’ve played. I’m proud of myself how I fought back in. And grateful to the people who supported me to get me back here. My family, the manager and his coaching staff. It was special to me how supportive they were in helping me to get back in.”
England kick-off their campaign on Monday against Iran and Dier says that a difficult task awaits. He said: “Firstly, any team here at the World Cup is going to be a very good team.
“If you look at their previous World Cup results, their last two games, they are going to be a difficult team to play against for different reasons.
“They have players with a lot of quality turning out for big European teams. Because of my connection to Portugal, I know Mehdi Taremi who plays for Porto.
“There’s a lot of good players in that team and, as I say it’s a World Cup so, like it does for us, it means everything to them. Every game will be very difficult.”
