England coach Roy Hodgson has defended counterpart Antonio Conte over his clashes with Serie A clubs.

The Italy coach has been hammered by Juventus over Claudio Marchisio's apparent training ground injury.

Hodgson said: "It's not right for an outsider like me to give an opinion.

"But I can say that it's an important topic for all managers. It's not a strange situation, it happens all the time elsewhere too.

"There's always a conflict between clubs and national teams. The clubs want to use the international breaks to rest their players, while we [the managers] have to make the most of that period."