Wright hoping to revive England career

RICHARD WRIGHT hopes his £3.5m switch to Everton from Arsenal can help relaunch his England career.

Wright, who has two England caps, missed out on the World Cup and he knows he has little chance of featuring under Sven-Goran Eriksson until he is playing regularly in the Premiership.

That was the lure of Everton and the goalkeeper was not prepared to spend another season at Highbury as David Seaman’s understudy. Wright, 24, is so determined to restart his international and club careers he has agreed to take a pay cut to move to Goodison Park.

The fee for Wright could rise to £4.5million depending on appearances and he has left Arsenal just one year after arriving in a £6million deal from his hometown club Ipswich.

Wright was at Everton’s Bellefield training ground on Tuesday having a medical and discussing personal terms.

He gave the Blues the thumbs up yesterday and he is expected to sign officially for the club this morning.

Wright will then fly up to Glasgow to link up with his new team-mates on their pre-season tour of Scotland and he could make his debut against Dunfermline on Saturday.

Wright will be joined at Everton by Brazilian striker Juliano Rodrigo, who is set to become manager David Moyes’ next signing.

Everton have agreed personal terms with Rodrigo who is joining the club on a 12-month loan deal with a view to a permanent move.

Everton are waiting for documentation from South America to arrive before tying up the deal.

Meanwhile Moyes was relieved to hear that his first signing Joseph Yobo was not seriously injured in the friendly win over Queens Park.

It was feared he might have cracked his fibula, but an X-ray has revealed he suffered only soft tissue damage around his ankle.