Perhaps wary of the prospect of a sea of hostile camera lenses and dictaphones from across the globe being pointed in his face in Sunday's pre-match press conference ahead of England's game against France, Roy Hodgson yesterday sought to take the sting out of the Rio Ferdinand story that has dogged England's preparations almost incessantly.
Prior to England's cross-border trip from Krakow to Donetsk, Hodgson sat down with the BBC, ITV and the national press to offer his explanation for the original omission of Rio Ferdinand and his subsequent decision to decide against calling him up following an injury to Gary Cahill.
Or, as ITV put it, 'Hodgson comes clean', as if he were confessing to carrying out a bank job, or being the as-yet-undiscovered architect of Watergate.
But in seeking to explain those much-discussed "footballing reasons", the England coach may have provoked more questions than answers. Certainly Early Doors was left rather unconvinced by this attempt to cast controversy aside and focus entirely on football.
"Rio Ferdinand for me is not a player that you call up as a substitute, or to cover for the players that you have," said Hodgson, who has seen the early part of his reign overshadowed by the Ferdinand issue, not that it takes a huge amount to overshadow two narrow 1-0 wins over Norway and Belgium.
"We turned to Martin Kelly because I knew he was going to be someone who would be very useful to us. He's very happy to be here knowing that his chances of playing a big part in the tournament are quite small. You don't turn to people like Rio Ferdinand for that."
This begs a multitude of questions. Firstly and most importantly, why did Hodgson not make prior contact with Ferdinand to ascertain whether using him as an option from the bench would indeed be such an insult to a player of his experience and reputation?
Ferdinand - unlike players such as Micah Richards and Michael Carrick, who made it clear they did not wish to be on the stand-by list - has always maintained he would be happy to represent England in any capacity.
He reiterated as much again on Saturday morning, telling The Sun: "I won't discuss what Mr Hodgson has said to me but he knows I wanted to be in the squad.
"If you aren't disappointed by being left at home when your country is playing in tournaments like this then there's a problem. I might have had a few injury problems in the past but I was in good shape.
"I always said I wouldn't retire from international football until I stopped playing and I won't.
"I will still be available and I'll be watching England and cheering them on because it's my country and I want us to do well."
The second question raised by Hodgson's somewhat unconvincing explanation is why he considers players of extensive experience and talent to be inadequate substitutes?
This attitude fits perfectly logically with his bemusing decision to call the likes of Jordan Henderson and Kelly into his squad following Liverpool's terrible season, but in a wider context is surely inexplicable.
Miroslav Klose was used as a substitute for just 10 minutes in Germany's 1-0 victory over Portugal last night — he is one of their greatest all-time strikers, a player who is only five goals short of matching Gerd Mueller's record of 68 for the national side. Did Joachim Loew come to the conclusion that Klose is "not a player that you call up as a substitute"? No, he saw the striker's experience as being an invaluable asset to the squad, whether he plays or not.
Did Netherlands decide against calling up Rafael van der Vaart because they had too many good midfielders already? 'Take a break Rafa, chill out with the missus, we can do without you.'
Experience is a vital commodity at a major tournament, and to leave Ferdinand out on the basis that his ego might be a bit bruised remains somewhat inexplicable, to ED at least.
Perhaps the strangest aspect about this whole saga is the fact that Hodgson has had the perfect get-out-of-jail-free card at his fingertips the whole time. On May 13, Sir Alex Ferguson explicitly said that Ferdinand was incapable of playing two games in four days. If so, then rightly his place at the finals should have been in doubt.
Yet in the press conference following his Euro 2012 squad announcement, Hodgson equally explicitly said that fitness issues did not drive his decision to leave Ferdinand out. He cited those infamous "footballing reasons".
It will become apparent in England's latest press conference at Donetsk's Donbass Arena at 2.15pm whether the issue is behind Hodgson or not. ED will be in attendance, but will probably be too busy trying to engage one of UEFA's army of attractive female volunteers in conversation to bother with asking a question. ED suspects that having mollified the two big broadcasters and the national press with Saturday's interviews, this is now water under the bridge and a dead issue for England.
This particular controversy may be closed off, but there remains a sour taste in the mouth.
As Hodgson himself said: "Now I have to live with the fact — no doubt in this tournament and maybe for years ahead — that people have said other things, and his representatives have said other things. It's a fact of life. But I've got a match to play on Monday and that matters to me very deeply."
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QUOTE OF THE DAY: "If you look at the two games we've had under him (Hodgson), the organisation has been different to previous games and I think it's helped. The two 1-0 wins were good wins, especially the way we kept our shape and managed to get ourselves forward and get the goals. I think it's going to be important to do that on Monday." - England's Ashley Young stays on message in his press conference ahead of Monday's match against France. The Manchester United attacker also diplomatically responded to comments about reports that the French defenders were slow and overweight by saying: "I hope they are - it would give us a chance."
FOREIGN VIEW: "It was not only Robin van Persie. There were maybe four, five, six players who had a lot of chances. And the referee had also a chance to give us a penalty. I'm not looking for excuses. I'm just trying to give answers to the questions. We just have to beat Germany. That's not going to be easy but that's the goal now and everyone knows that." - Netherlands coach Bert van Marwijk backs Robin van Persie after the striker's poor performance in front of goal contributed to Dutch suffering a shock 1-0 defeat to Denmark that blows Group B wide open.
COMING UP: The big games just keep on coming at Euro 2012. Group C gets underway with Spain v Italy at 5pm, before Trap's boys kick off their first campaign in a decade with Republic of Ireland v Croatia at 7:45pm.