Sport

England suffer major blow as injury rules Terry out

EURO 2012 QUALIFYING GROUP G: England v Montenegro: ENGLAND HAVE suffered a blow ahead of their qualifier with Montenegro tomorrow…

Mon Oct 11 2010 - 01:00

EURO 2012 QUALIFYING GROUP G: England v Montenegro:ENGLAND HAVE suffered a blow ahead of their qualifier with Montenegro tomorrow after John Terry was ruled out with a back injury yesterday.

Terry had been struggling in recent weeks with a rib problem, but now he appears to have picked up a fresh injury whilst with England.

The English Football Association have confirmed that Terry has returned to Chelsea for treatment and will not be involved at Wembley. The news is a huge blow to coach Fabio Capello, who has already lost Phil Jagielka from his original squad.

Jagielkas injury has spared Capello a major selection headache. Having hailed the Everton defender as the “driver” of his defence following last months victories over Bulgaria and Switzerland that gave England a flying start to their Group G campaign, Capello was expected to stick with the 28-year-old tomorrow.

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Although the English Football Association was initially optimistic Jagielka would be fine after pulling out of a practice match at the end of Saturday’s training session due to a hamstring injury, scans revealed the damage was more serious than anticipated and immediately sent the Everton player back to Merseyside.

Jagielkas injury spares Capello the job of dropping Ferdinand, who has not been told whether he is to keep the captaincy after missing eight of Englands 10 games since he was appointed.

Ferdinand recently lost the job at Old Trafford to Nemanja Vidic amid Alex Fergusons concerns over his overall fitness levels.

Gary Cahill has been called up as cover for Jagielka, meaning Bolton Wanderers now have two players in the squad following the surprise selection of their veteran striker Kevin Davies.

Stewart Downing has also been called into the squad after Aaron Lennon was ruled out with a sore back. The Tottenham winger missed training after reporting the problem and after further tests it was decided to release him back to his club for treatment.

To counter the bad news, Capello did receive a fillip yesterday evening when Gareth Barry arrived at Englands training base. The Manchester City midfielder did not link up with the England squad as planned on Thursday night for personal reasons.

However, his concerns had eased sufficiently for him to report 24 hours later, which would be a relief for Capello given Tottenhams Tom Huddlestone is the only other orthodox central midfield player in his squad.