‘My friends were harassed’: Rob Green reveals the fallout from his mistake at the 2010 World Cup

I was doing the school run when I found out England had drawn USA in their group at the World Cup. I had just enough time to send one tweet, with one emoji, a pair of eyes. As if to say: ‘well this is awkward.’

I think enough time has passed for my mistake in 2010 to be looked on in good humour. It doesn’t define me as a person and it doesn’t define my career.

It would have been nice to say it was the only mistake I ever made – but it wasn’t!

Green said his friends and family had been ‘harrassed’ following his mistake at the tournament

You know immediately what’s gone wrong when it happens. The ball hits your hand in slightly the wrong place, just an inch away from where it should have done. That’s the difference.

You get that gut-wrenching feeling but you have to get through the next five minutes. The only thing worse than making a big mistake is making two. You have a process to mentally switch back on and reset, a bit like batsmen do if they play a bad shot in cricket.

It’s not until you’re walking in at the end of the game that you realise the magnitude of it. Only then do you realise it was a big error and the whole world is watching.

I was disappointed but you know as a goalkeeper that these things happen once in a while. You make mistakes in your career. You just try to keep them as far apart as possible.

Green also admitted that the media had ‘over-sensationalised’ the error which wasn’t that big

Green was disappointed Fabio Capello (pictured) criticised him after the fumble happened 

Fabio Capello pulled me to one side the night before the next game and said it was too big a mistake. I said I’m ready to play and he replied “well, you’re not.” That was a huge disappointment. You make a rare mistake like that once every six months, if that.

The mistake itself wasn’t as big a deal for me as it was for everyone else. How it was over-sensationalised in the media.

I was disappointed in how my friends and family were treated. It was one of the few games my parents missed, they were flying out to the World Cup later. They went out for a walk one day and got a message saying: ‘Don’t come home, you can’t get in, your house is surrounded”. I had friends who were harassed at work. These were just people going about their everyday lives.

Social media was not as big as it is now. You could switch your phone off and get away from it all. It’s a very, very different existence now.

He admitted that the criticism of a mistake at this tournament will be over a lot quicker

But if one of the lads makes a mistake in Qatar, the way the world works now, it will be over a lot quicker. Everyone sees every game, it will get brought up, but people move on really quickly.

For me, it was something that I lived with and moved on. Since retiring, it is not something that’s lingered in my past. It is something that happened in a game of football. Everyone in their careers tries to do the best they can and, sometimes, things happen – but that’s life.

England have three good keepers in good form in Qatar. Jordan Pickford has been at Everton for number of years and them staying in the Premier League is dependent on him playing well a lot of the time. He knows about dealing with that kind of pressure and he deals with it well. He brings something with his distribution that the England team relies on.

Green admits that Gareth Southgate (right) is very good at communicating with his team

Nick Pope has come on strides at Newcastle and Aaron Ramsdale’s meteoric rise has been incredible. Relegated twice and then moving on to Arsenal. His character, his temperament and his technique have improved. He’s playing in big games and keeping clean sheets in a team top of the Premier League.

It’s healthy competition. It’s also healthy that they know their respective places and are communicated to well.

We didn’t have that. In South Africa, we had myself, David James and Joe Hart. We were all used to playing and didn’t know who was first choice. That is difficult as you don’t know how to prepare.

Green also compared the current squad to the 2010 side which was disjointed in comparison

Gareth is very good at communication. I don’t think we got that particularly. For a goalkeeper union, knowing your role is always key. That was a difficult factor for us and one this group has got right.

There’s lots of differences with this squad to ours. It’s a fairly settled squad. In 2010, we had players coming out of retirement, players being asked to come out of retirement and not doing, players getting injured in the warm-up games, players getting injured in the training sessions. It was a very disjointed time.

The former England keeper admitted he has high hopes for emerging star Nick Pope (left)

What this group also have is a unity that has surpassed football. As footballers, you are your own entity so to create a unity and create something bigger than the sum of its parts is tough.

It has been brilliant to see them take a stand. The causes they have fought for and how they have gone about it to create change is real testament to who they are as a group.

They have created something bigger than just a footballing side. It is a long way from where we were.