Raheem Sterling has responded to angry fans on Twitter who criticised the attacker for being too "tired" to start in England's 1-0 win against Estonia on Sunday.
Sterling was left out of the Three Lions' starting lineup for the Euro 2016 qualifier in Tallinn after he complained about fatigue during training on Saturday.
Roy Hodgson chose Adam Lallana instead and the England manager later defended Sterling's honesty in his postmatch interview.
However, the 19-year-old faced criticism from England supporters on social media, retweeting some of their comments before later issuing his own response.
Now listening too.. Excuse me for being human�� omw home
- Raheem Sterling (@sterling31) October 12, 2014
Sterling came off the bench during the second half of the match, despite only playing 45 minutes in Thursday's 5-0 victory against San Marino at Wembley.
Hodgson predicted Sterling, who won the free kick from which England scored, would be fine by the time he next plays for Liverpool.
He told a news conference: "I'm convinced he'll have a week now when he goes back to Liverpool, they'll sort him out and come Sunday [when Liverpool play Queens Park Rangers] you'll see him flying around."
Out of the England players who featured against Estonia, only Gary Cahill has played more football this season than Sterling -- the Chelsea defender has completed 1164 minutes of action compared to Sterling's 1079 minutes.
Sterling also received plenty of support for asking to be rested, with several Liverpool fans taking to Twitter to defend their player.
Former England international Gary Lineker stuck up for the youngster and claimed Hodgson had done Sterling "no favours" by bringing the situation to light.
Raheem Sterling is a teenager. Teenagers do get tired and even moody. He's young, still developing, we should cut him some slack.
- Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) October 12, 2014
QPR defender Rio Ferdinand also voiced his support for Sterling, calling for more players to speak up when they are tired.
Sterling - tired, fair play to him. English players are normally too proud to do that unlike our foreign friends. #FreshWhenItMattersMost
- Rio Ferdinand (@rioferdy5) October 13, 2014
For instance, Tevez would come in some days and sit on the massage bed while the team trained..."I'm tired"..match day - firing & energised
- Rio Ferdinand (@rioferdy5) October 13, 2014
With more rest at the right times throughout seasons Rooney would have gone into tournaments for England fresher 100%.... Too proud again.
- Rio Ferdinand (@rioferdy5) October 13, 2014
Same could be said of Gerard, Lampard, JT, A.Cole myself etc-all too proud to sit out of training or a match with the bigger picture in mind
- Rio Ferdinand (@rioferdy5) October 13, 2014