Roy Hodgson's England dinner cancelled as players too busy

Roy Hodgson was hoping to meet up with his players at the end of the month.

England manager Roy Hodgson has been forced to cancel a dinner meeting with his players because they are too busy.

Hodgson was keen to get the players together at the end of January to go through a tactical debrief of November's 3-1 win over Scotland.

But the Football Association said that no meeting will take place.

The FA said clubs were in favour of the meeting, but due to a busy schedule, no suitable date could be agreed by all parties involved.

It comes just over two weeks after Hodgson had said the meeting had been agreed, with the England boss saying at the time: "We've all agreed we're going to get together. Unfortunately, my time with them won't really begin again until March."

The players had been expected to meet at St George's Park, probably on a Thursday, with Hodgson insistent that players would only be away for a few hours.

Despite that fact, Chelsea were set to prevent Gary Cahill from attending the meeting because of a packed upcoming schedule for the Blues.

Chelsea have five games in the final fortnight in January, including Premier League games against Swansea and leaders Manchester City.

They also have a two-legged League Cup semi-final against Liverpool and an FA Cup tie against Millwall or Bradford.

The possibility of two meetings, one for players based in the north and another for those in the south, was considered - but Hodgson felt that would not work.

The FA said all squad members will be sent videos and information on their performances against Scotland, as has been the case with previous debriefs.

England have a 100% record in the six games they have played since the World Cup, with friendly wins over Norway and Scotland book-ending four Euro 2016 qualifying victories.

They are six points clear at the top after four games in Euro 2016 qualification group E.