Hodgson: Hoes Euro 2012 experience will help
Hodgson is due to name his squad for the next World Cup double-header against San Marino and Poland next week.
It will force him to address the issue of what to do without John Terry, who retired from England duty earlier this week, claiming the FA had made his position "untenable".
Sir Alex Ferguson has already stated his belief that Rio Ferdinand will not be summoned back into the fold, which would leave Joleon Lescott, Phil Jagielka and Gary Cahill as England's central defensive lynchpins.
As Lescott and Jagielka struggled against Ukraine earlier this month, it is not an ideal situation, for whilst San Marino will be disposed with at Wembley, England could do without dropping any more points against Poland in Warsaw if they are not to put their hopes of direct qualification in jeopardy.
And that would be a waste. For Hodgson is adamant the youngsters within his squad gained so much from their experiences at Euro 2012.
"That tournament will stand the young players in good stead," Hodgson told FATV.
"We had a lot of young players with us who had virtually no international experience and came off the back of seasons where they hardly played.
"Andy Carroll did not play many games for Liverpool until the very end. Danny Welbeck had not played many games for Manchester United and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain hardly played for Arsenal.
"The younger ones will gain enormously from that tournament experience."
With Steven Gerrard, Ashley Cole and Wayne Rooney, Hodgson has retained a core of experienced players he hopes will allow England to progress even without Terry's influence.
Hodgson has been left red-faced over the issue, given he spoke out so pointedly in the Chelsea man's backing, expressing the hope Terry would emerge with a minimal ban that would allow him to carry on being selected for his country.
That outcome is not what Hodgson would have wished for, especially as he noted in Poland and Ukraine last summer the damage that can occur when senior players are missing.
"The loss of some key players did affect us (during Euro 2012)," he said.
"Experience and ability is what it is all about at the level we were playing at and I don't think we played anything like as well as I would like to think an England team can play.
"But on the other hand, I thought we showed a lot of other English qualities.
"The team spirit, the workrate, the determination, the desire to throw your body in the way of the ball to make certain the team got a result.
"Going into the Euros my major concern was making sure the environment was right, that the players felt comfortable and were happy to be there.
"I can be very happy with what we achieved in that respect but let's hope we can get to the next tournament and show we are an even better team than we were in the last one."
