SAINTS star Theo Walcott looked back on his surprise England inclusion for the 2006 World Cup and admitted: “I don’t think I should’ve gone.”

Then at Arsenal having signed for the Gunners from Saints as a teenager, the forward was called up as a shock inclusion by Three Lions boss Sven Goran Eriksson for his first major tournament.

The likes of Darren Bent missed out on the squad altogether, while Jermain Defoe was placed on stand-by.

Walcott did not play a minute at the tournament, while England bowed out in the quarter-finals in Germany after losing on penalties to Portugal.

Reflecting on that time, Walcott told the Saints website: “I’ve said this in the past – I don’t think I should’ve gone.

“If I knew this was going to happen, I would’ve said, ‘do not take this young man. You can’t’.

“Straightaway I had to develop in front of the whole world, basically. In England, with the media and everything, I couldn’t.

“A lot of the players that come through now are 22, 23. I was 16, 17. I was a kid. They say that about players who are 22, 23 – they’re ‘kids’. I’m sorry, but that’s not a kid.

“A kid is 16, 17, coming into the World Cup in a man’s game. I had to be there and – my wife as well – deal with things, like paparazzi. They don’t get that anymore really – paparazzi following them around at 15, 16, trying to get a picture.

“I don’t think anyone is ready for that at that age, just leaving school, I’d have never expected that. If I could change that, I genuinely would, but having said all that it was a mad experience for a family and for myself being part of it.”

Walcott went on to play 47 times for England, in total, scoring eight goals.

“It’s weird, because I was just going there to play football,” he said, reflecting further on Germany 2006.

“That’s all I knew, that’s all I wanted to do, and then not to get a chance to play as well when thinking I might play in the last game – the Portugal one – when we went to penalties, that’s when I thought ‘I might actually come on here’, just for something different, but it never happened, which is a bit of a shame, but it’s just one thing I had to live with.

“I’ve got a video documentary of me filming myself and the whole thing that I’ve kept as a keepsake at home, so it’s quite an interesting watch, but I look really young, really young – very out of my depth, shall we just say.”

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