England and Tottenham winger Andros Townsend has described Roy Hodgson's comment that prompted a race row as a "compliment". England boss Hodgson was criticised for referring to a joke about a monkey and an astronaut at half-time in Tuesday's World Cup qualifier against Poland.
Hodgson was trying to encourage right-back Chris Smalling to pass to Townsend more often.
"The manager just told the players to give the ball to me so that's a compliment," said the Tottenham winger.
"Everyone should be focusing on England qualifying for Brazil - not on negative silly news."
