England sweat on trio
England's preparations for their upcoming Euro 2008 qualifiers against Israel and Russia suffered a fresh setback on Tuesday when a combination of illness and injury forced John Terry, Steven Gerrard and Owen Hargreaves to sit out the squad's first training session.
Head coach Steve McClaren is already resigned to being without Frank Lampard for at least the Israel match on Saturday and was forced to leave the injured David Beckham and Wayne Rooney out of his squad altogether.
Lampard tore a thigh muscle in training for Chelsea on Friday and will have a fitness test on the day of Israel match to see if there is any chance of him featuring against Russia on the following Wednesday.
England desperately need to win both matches if they are to get their bid to reach the finals in Austria and Switzerland next year back on track.
McClaren's squad is currently languishing in fourth place in group E, from which only the top two teams will qualify.
With Lampard out, Gerrard's presence will be even more important than usual for England. But the Liverpool midfielder has played only once since breaking a toe against Toulouse three weeks ago and his club manager, Rafael Benitez, has voiced anxiety over the danger of whether Gerrard can realistically feature in both matches.
Gerrard is determined to play but he was restricted to gym work on Tuesday as the rest of the squad got down to work at Arsenal's training complex just to the north of the capital.
Both Terry, who is also suffering from a broken toe and reported for duty on Sunday night feeling under the weather, and Hargreaves, who has been struggling with tendinitis in a knee, are expected to be fully involved on Wednesday.
Part of Tuesday's session saw McClaren examine his options in attack with Emile Heskey, Andrew Johnson and Jermain Defoe all tried out alongside Michael Owen, who was wearing heavy strapping on his right wrist.
Heskey, who was given an unexpected late call-up on Saturday, has not played for England since the Euro 2004 finals.
But the 29-year-old is being tipped for a starting slot against Israel because of a belief that he can bring out the best in Owen.
Although Heskey has a modest international record of five goals in 43 appearances, it has been noted that Owen has scored 11 times in the 12 international matches in which he and Heskey started together.
Critics of Heskey have frequently suggested that he lacks the self-confidence or touch of arrogance required to be a really effective striker, but the Wigan forward insists he is ready to grasp his second chance on the international stage.
"I had no idea I was under consideration by the manager and it's a great chance to show I'm good enough," he said.
"If I get the chance I will prove it. I don't have any doubt - why should I?"
Heskey is looking forward to hooking up with Owen once more. "Of course Michael and I are different players, there's no doubt about that," added the former Liverpool striker.
"I know how he plays and we've proved we can play together. We complement each other's games. He is a quality striker and he is there to get goals.
"We saw what kind of player he is on Saturday when he scored for Newcastle in the last minute against us.
"He has the ability to pop up from nowhere to score goals, but my strengths are in other areas of the pitch."
Provided Gerrard and Hargreaves are fit, McClaren looks likely to start with Shaun Wright-Phillips on the right of midfield and Joe Cole on the left.
Cole has struggled to make the Chelsea starting line-up of late but McClaren insisted that he still regarded the midfielder as a first-choice player.
"He hardly played for us last season (due to injury) and we missed him," McClaren said. "He showed how important he was to us in the summer when he came back against Estonia and scored. I have made a point to him about his performances and he know what he has to do."
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