My England debut was almost made null and void, I got plane home with no idea whether it would count

PHIL JAGIELKA nearly had his first England cap taken away from him due to a little-known rule.

The retired centre-back played for the likes of Sheffield United and Everton during his lengthy career.

Jagielka, 41, also earned 40 England caps, with his debut coming in a 2008 friendly against Trinidad and Tobago.

The Three Lions won the game 3-0 via goals from Gareth Barry and Jermain Defoe.

However, the match was nearly null and voided as England seemingly broke a substitution rule.

Fabio Capello changed close to the whole team at half-time as Jagielka came off the bench at the break.

And the mishap led to him being unsure if his debut was going to not count.

Jagielka exclusively told Ladbrokes Fanzone: “There were rumours that it was going to be null and void because we’d made too many substitutions.

“They were trying to change the rules around subs because people were complaining that full squads were being changed at half-time.

“Even though we agreed with Trinidad and Tobago that was what we were going to do, by the time we got on the flight home, my cap wasn’t going to count.

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“But then, by the time we got home, it did count, because someone got the paperwork done.”

Jagielka went on to captain England, explaining: “It has to be the proudest moment of my career.

“I remember when Roy Hodgson pulled me to let me know, we’d won nine out of nine qualifiers, and I think he was going to rest a couple of players.

“We were playing on an artificial pitch in Lithuania, and he told me I was going to wear the armband.

“It’s nice. I look at the picture of that team, and it’s one of Harry Kane’s first games, Dele Alli is there, Ross Barkley played, Jack Butland was in goal.”

Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk