England keeper Robert Green smiles during a round at the Lost City Golf Course at the Sun City resort yesterdayRobert Green put a brave face on his appalling World Cup blunder yesterday and insisted he is ready to wear the England goalkeeping jersey again.
Speaking about the mistake that gifted the U.S. an equaliser on Saturday night, he said: 'This makes me more determined to play next time, to right the wrong.
'You want to be a man about it and you want to stand up. You want to be tested. Playing lovely football and making wonderful saves is not a challenge.
'This is a challenge and this is why you are a footballer. It's how you bounce back.
'It was a mistake. The important thing in the game is to not let it affect you for the rest [of the game], however long is left.
'I know I'm going to get flak for it but so be it. I'm strong enough to take it, strong enough to move on, and will do, and be ready for the next game if selected.'
It has also emerged that the West Ham keeper recently split from his model girlfriend Elizabeth Minett.
Green looked distraught after the match, which ended 1-1.
Some onlookers suggested his red eyes showed he had been holding back tears.
Team-mates Wayne Rooney, John Terry and Peter Crouch helped take his mind off things by playing a round of golf in Sun City yesterday.
Terry said: 'It's just one of those things, it's a shame it happened to Robert.
'We'll be able to pick him up - we're in this together. We've been away for a long time and hopefully we've got a long time to be together still. Mistakes happen.'
Family and friends have also rallied round. Green's parents, Steve and Jackie, have been in constant contact from their £500,000 detached home in Woking, Surrey.
Mr Green, a retired hospital consultant, encouraged his only son to carry on with his academic qualifications despite his early footballing promise.
So Green gained ten GCSEs, studied law and psychology and thought twice before giving up his studies in favour of the professional career that started at Norwich City Football Club 12 years ago.
Model image: Elizabeth Minett dated Green for two yearsAlongside playing for West Ham United and England, Green finds time to write poetry and claims to have storylines for a dozen or so novels mapped out.
He also has ambitions as a sports journalist and has already written columns for newspapers.
He once said: 'A footballer's job stimulates you a lot physically, but not mentally. It's very much tunnel vision.
'There's no real spectrum of life - not real life, anyway - and it's good to have something else to focus on. While I was up in Norwich, I went to night school to do a couple of A-levels and studied psychology for a year and law for a year.'
But in one area of his life at least - dating beautiful women - Green is more of a stereotypical footballer.
Error: Green watches as the ball heads into the back of the net to gift USA's Clint Dempsey an equaliser on Saturday night
The despairing goalkeeper looks back as the ball trickles over the line and into the netHe went out with model Sarah Thomas, 30, for almost ten years after they met in their teens. They were even dubbed Norfolk's Posh and Becks while he was playing for Norwich.
He moved on to a brief liaison with society girl-about-town Emma Sayle, who runs London lap-dance club Secrets and organises upmarket parties for wealthy clients on her Killing Kittens website.
More recently Green has been in a relationship with Canadian lingerie model Minett.
The 23-year-old year met Green in Toronto two years ago when West Ham toured Canada.
The economics graduate moved to London to live with him, and they shared a stunning Thames-view apartment on the Isle of Dogs in East London.
Friends say they split up just before Green's call-up to the England squad and his departure to South Africa for the World Cup.
source: dailymail
