LISTEN to the recent hype about Premiership footballers and you could be mistaken for thinking they are super human.

Talk of setting salary caps at a mind-blowing £100,000 a week, and with three teams in the last eight of the Champions League, is there nothing our heroes can't do?

Well, yes - kick with their left foot.

Just ask Steve McClaren. He is in the ridiculous position of not having anybody to play left-back in their crucial European Championships qualifying game against Israel.

With Ashley Cole suspended, McClaren was going to turn to his back-up - a man who rarely gets a run out for his club.

And now Wayne Bridge is injured, the England coach is left scouring the country for a makeshift replacement.

Since John Barnes retired (and he was never any good for England), the country has had to make do and mend on the left of midfield, and now the same thing is happening in defence.

It all comes down to one simple fact: English players don't practise with their left foot. Good kids are drilled in tactics and the physical side of the game, and kids as young as nine now have regular meetings with the clubs' sports psychologists.

At the same time, they have their individuality weaned out of them which is why Wayne Rooney has gone from an amazing one-off talent to a great team player, and why this country will never produce a Ronaldinho or Lionel Messi.

But, nowhere along the line are players, old or young, told to go out and kick a ball with their left foot until it is as good as their right.

Until they are, England will always have problems on the left.