England manager Roy Hodgson keen to focus on the future

England boss Roy Hodgson says it is time to move on from the Rio Ferdinand and John Terry era and focus on the international players of the future.

Ferdinand, 34, confirmed his international retirement on Wednesday, while Terry, 32, retired in September.

Since Hodgson became manager in May last year, several England squad announcements have been dominated by one or both of the centre-backs.

But Hodgson said: "It's a time to move forward."

Ferdinand was left out of the Euro 2012 squad for "footballing reasons". His exclusion avoided a potential conflict with Terry. The Chelsea defender was named in Hodgson's squad for last year's tournament in Poland and Ukraine as he awaited trial over allegations he racially abused Ferdinand's brother, Anton.

Terry was cleared of the charge at Westminster Magistrates' Court in July and retired from international football, but was later found guilty by the Football Association.

Ferdinand has not played for England since and formally ended his international career this week.

Hodgson added: "It's time for me to get behind the players who will be the ones to take us to Brazil [for the 2014 World Cup].

"John [Terry] did call me when the stories broke and my understanding is that he is in line with Rio [Ferdinand] and he is actually in retirement."

Hodgson's focus at the moment is on qualification for next year's World Cup.

England are second in qualifying Group H, two points behind Montenegro.

They have friendlies against Brazil, Scotland and the Republic of Ireland in the summer, before resuming their qualifying campaign against Moldova on 6 September.

While Hodgson is not planning to completely rely on younger players to secure England's place in Brazil next year, he is happy with the quality coming through the ranks.

"I don't want to go down the young players route - if I want Frank Lampard or Michael Dawson to play I don't want to worry about their age," he said.

"But the worry is that the older players have been in tournaments in their best years and still not pulled it off.

"We have a lot of talented players - Jack Wilshere has played 113 minutes in over a year for me but he has a great future, Theo Walcott, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Tom Cleverley, Danny Welbeck, Phil Jones, Chris Smalling, plus the Under-21 team with Jordan Henderson, who has come on.

"We also have Wilfried Zaha, Raheem Sterling, Nathaniel Chalobah and Thomas Ince so we aren't short.

"We don't need to keep shackling ourselves with what we have with these great players in the past.

"We have to take a chance elsewhere."