Fabio Capello has confirmed that England captain John Terry has been ruled out of the World Cup qualifier against Kazakhstan at Wembley on Saturday, and fellow centre-back Rio Ferdinand will stand in for Terry as captain.
The Chelsea defender was forced to miss all of Tuesday's training session due to a back problem, which flared up during his club's Champions League match against CFR Cluj last week.
Capello is hopeful Terry will prove his fitness before Wednesday's match against Belarus, but in the meantime he decide who to bring in alongside the stand-in captain Ferdinand.
Joleon Lescott, Wes Brown and Matthew Upson will compete for Terry's place tomorrow.
Liverpool skipper Steven Gerrard is fit again after missing the opening two qualifiers and is widely expected to be reunited with Frank Lampard in a narrow midfield trio anchored by Aston Villa's Gareth Barry.
Previous England managers were unable to find a midfield system that can accomodate both Gerrard and Lampard.
However, Capello says he is determined that both players are capable of playing together in the centre of midfield.
Gerro and Lamps have failed to show the kind of form they do when playing for their clubs while working together for their country.
Lampard, who has been in top form for Chelsea this season, admitted that his failure to form an understanding with Gerrard in central midfield was partly to blame for England's absence from Euro 2008 after finishing third to Croatia and Russia in qualifying.
Meanwhile, Berndt Stork, the under-21 coach brought in as caretaker after the dismissal of Dutch coach Arno Pijpers, has made sweeping changes to the squad which lost to Croatia and the Ukraine last month.
Nine of his team today will be aged 22 or under and four are making their senior international debuts.
And the German has warned his international rookies that the first player to swap shirts with England stars will never play for the national team again.
He said: "They must concentrate on the game. If they try to swap shirts straight after the game they will be in big trouble with me. If they really want an England shirt, I will buy one for all the players out of my own money."
Possible line-up
England: David James; Glen Johnson, Rio Ferdinand, Wes Brown, Ashley Cole; Frank Lampard, Gareth Barry, Steven Gerrard, Theo Walcott, Emile Heskey, Wayne Rooney
Kazakhstan: Alexander Mokin; Kairat Nurdauletov, Alexander Kislitsyn, Alexander Kirov; Alexander Kuchma; Sergei Skoryh, Andrei Karpovich; Ruslan Baltiev, Tanat Nuserbaev, Yuri Logvinenko; Sergei Ostapenko
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The Chelsea defender was forced to miss all of Tuesday's training session due to a back problem, which flared up during his club's Champions League match against CFR Cluj last week.
Capello is hopeful Terry will prove his fitness before Wednesday's match against Belarus, but in the meantime he decide who to bring in alongside the stand-in captain Ferdinand.
Joleon Lescott, Wes Brown and Matthew Upson will compete for Terry's place tomorrow.
Liverpool skipper Steven Gerrard is fit again after missing the opening two qualifiers and is widely expected to be reunited with Frank Lampard in a narrow midfield trio anchored by Aston Villa's Gareth Barry.
Previous England managers were unable to find a midfield system that can accomodate both Gerrard and Lampard.
However, Capello says he is determined that both players are capable of playing together in the centre of midfield.
Gerro and Lamps have failed to show the kind of form they do when playing for their clubs while working together for their country.
Lampard, who has been in top form for Chelsea this season, admitted that his failure to form an understanding with Gerrard in central midfield was partly to blame for England's absence from Euro 2008 after finishing third to Croatia and Russia in qualifying.
Meanwhile, Berndt Stork, the under-21 coach brought in as caretaker after the dismissal of Dutch coach Arno Pijpers, has made sweeping changes to the squad which lost to Croatia and the Ukraine last month.
Nine of his team today will be aged 22 or under and four are making their senior international debuts.
And the German has warned his international rookies that the first player to swap shirts with England stars will never play for the national team again.
He said: "They must concentrate on the game. If they try to swap shirts straight after the game they will be in big trouble with me. If they really want an England shirt, I will buy one for all the players out of my own money."
Possible line-up
England: David James; Glen Johnson, Rio Ferdinand, Wes Brown, Ashley Cole; Frank Lampard, Gareth Barry, Steven Gerrard, Theo Walcott, Emile Heskey, Wayne Rooney
Kazakhstan: Alexander Mokin; Kairat Nurdauletov, Alexander Kislitsyn, Alexander Kirov; Alexander Kuchma; Sergei Skoryh, Andrei Karpovich; Ruslan Baltiev, Tanat Nuserbaev, Yuri Logvinenko; Sergei Ostapenko
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