GLENN HODDLE last night advised Paul Gascoigne to rethink his game, both on and off the field, if he is to continue his England career much beyond the 30th birthday he will celebrate next month.

"You need to think about certain things when you are 30," the England coach stressed. "Things you used to get away with when you were 21. With Paul there are a lot of things in there that can be put right."

Hoddle was speaking principally about the long term injuries which continue to bedevil Gascoigne's career. But only this week Walter Smith, Gascoigne's manager at Rangers, was reported as saying that Ibrox had finally had enough of the player's antics.

Yesterday the Rangers chairman, David Munay, was equivocal on whether Gascoigne would be retained by the club. "He's under contract for 15 months and although Walter has made his thoughts public I think it was the appropriate time to make it," he said. "We will sit down and hopefully extend his contract and that is all I have to say about it at the moment".

Gascoigne has not played for England since the 2-0 victory over Georgia in a World Cup qualifier in Tblisi last November. Hoddle has not recalled him to the squad for Wednesday's return match against the Georgians at Wembley because Gascoigne has only just resumed play following the foot injury, suffered in a six a side tournament in Amsterdam, which forced him to miss the game against Italy in February when a 1-0 home defeat dealt a near mortal blow to England's chances of heading the group. In the mean time Gascoigne has again been making the wrong sort of headlines.

A binge with Chris Evans and Danny Baker the TV and radio presenters, ended with an incident in which Gascoigne was alleged to have slapped a woman who approached their car. Then he turned up in an Irish bar in New York on the day of an Old Firm game wearing Celtic colours.

Soon after Hoddle took over the England job he faced demands to drop Gascoigne after reports of wife beating and pictures of a battered looking spouse appeared in the newspapers.

Hoddle backed Gascoigne then and praised the player's readiness to undergo counselling. Last night Hoddle was still prepared to go some way to give Gascoigne the benefit of the doubt.

"I've looked in to the trouble that he's allegedly got himself in to," he said. "I deal with facts not fiction. Seventy five per cent of whatever happens to Paul in his life is fiction. Yes, there's a guilty side but there is also a lot of fiction. There are facts there that need to be dealt with but at the end of the day I looked into what had been written and as far as I'm concerned there wasn't a story there."

Nevertheless Hoddle had to admit there was still a problem. "We've tried to help him," he said. "That's where the counselling helps. To a certain degree he started to respond to that but there are certain things perhaps that he needs to change in his life." Hoddle believes that Gascoigne could do a lot to help him self particularly on the field.

"If we're going to see Paul return after this injury and get back to his very best," he said "he's got to do a lot of thinking and perhaps a lot of preventative work so as not to keep picking up these injuries.

"Only he can change the other things in his life, he's got to just help himself to have the maturity at 30. There are a lot of things that have happened in his life and he needs to learn from them. He's a talented player but there are things to be addressed and Paul needs to address them."

Hoddle remains convinced that Gascoigne could still be playing international football when he is 35.

He's an excellent footballer and he has an immense talent. I've not been in this job a year yet and there's still time for Paul to get back to his very best. We want to use that talent and I think if anyone in this country knew that in two years time Paul Gascoigne would be playing as well as six years ago they'd be delighted."

He did offer an olive branch, though, by saying Gascoigne would do himself a favour if he made himself available for this summer's tournament in France.

England reported for training yesterday almost completely free of injuries following the midweek games. Ian Walker, the Tottenham goalkeeper, is still worried about a strained Achilles tendon as well as a shoulder problem and yesterday Stuart Pearce was causing more concern with the sore calf he has been suffering for the last fortnight.