Reading manager Steve Coppell has told Nicky Shorey he should not treat his England omission as a vote of no confidence by Steve McClaren.
With Ashley Cole and Wayne Bridge both injured, Shorey had travelled to Moscow in the hope of adding to his two caps but McClaren opted to play Everton's Joleon Lescott on the left of the defence instead.
Lescott made his name as a centre-back but Coppell insisted Shorey should not feel hard done by.
He said: "I don't see it that way. For 90% of last season and the majority of this, he (Lescott) has played left-back so I don't think anyone can say he had been moved over.
"I think he sees himself as a centre-half but that was a decision that a manager had to make. Whether it would have made any difference, who knows?
"I can understand Shorsey being frustrated by the decision but a manager lives and dies by those decisions."