Argentina's Juan Sebastian Veron practised with Argentina's reserves yesterday, fuelling speculation he would be dropped for their decisive match against Sweden on Wednesday.

Veron, who has captained the Argentine team in their opening two matches, had a poor first half against England in the 1-0 defeat in Sapporo on Friday and was substituted at half-time.

Pablo Aimar, his second half replacement, was among a group of 12 first choice players who did hard physical training at Argentina's World Cup retreat, the team's press officer said.

An alternative reading of the closed practice involving Veron could be that coach Marcelo Bielsa wanted to drill Veron for Wednesday's match with a view to having him play deeper behind Aimar. The pair linked well together during Argentina's warm-up friendly against Cameroon in Geneva in March, a 2-2 draw in which they both had a hand in the team's two goals.

Ariel Ortega, another of the Argentina stars to underachieve against England, is not worried about the chance of being eliminated in the first round.

"We don't think that's a possibility," he said. "Now is the better part of the World Cup, because you can't even draw. Now we have to win the next five matches."

Team captain Roberto Ayala is expected to return from injury and veteran Rangers forward Claudio Caniggia, who injured his knee in the Scottish Cup final, is also expected to be available.

England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson has, meanwhile, revealed that it would be difficult for him to change the line-up that broke the backs of Argentina when England face Nigeria on Wednesday.

With Owen Hargreaves set to be ruled out due to a shin injury which forced him off early on in Sapporo, replacement Trevor Sinclair is therefore expected to keep his place on the left.

A possible change would be to bring in Kieron Dyer, but Sinclair has seized his chance to impress in the problem left-sided role.

"I saw Trevor play that well at West Ham sometimes, but that was his best game for England," declared Eriksson.

"I have had other good performances there but Trevor did a great job. He was excellent. He was physically strong, beat people, put some good crosses in and defended well too."

Asked if it would now be difficult for him to make any changes, Eriksson said: "Yes, maybe it would be."