England: A team with a hole in the middle

With five players injured and only three currently left standing, England’s midfield risks being a very lonely place at the World Cup f...

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With five players injured and only three currently left standing, England’s midfield risks being a very lonely place at the World Cup finals.

The tale of woe, which started last month at Manchester United with David Beckham breaking a bone in his foot and continued with defender Gary Neville breaking another, has since become a full-blown saga.

Steven Gerrard was ruled out of the finals by a groin injury, Kieron Dyer and Nicky Butt suffered knee damage before leaving and Danny Murphy fell awkwardly in training on Wednesday. Pending the results of Murphy’s bone scan, Eriksson has been left with Paul Scholes as England’s only first-choice mid-fielder still on his feet. Two gifted rookies, Joe Cole, 20, and Owen Hargreaves, 21, are also available, though both have only a handful of caps after breaking into the squad last season.

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Argentina, who England face on June 7 in Group F, will not be quaking in their boots. Though the finals are little more than a week away, Eriksson’s immediate hurdle is their friendly against Cameroon on Sunday.

Arranged with their last group game against Nigeria in mind, Eriksson faces a match in Kobe with major problems.

Beckham, Dyer and Butt are still doubtful for the finals and will not be risked for a friendly, leaving the Swede with little option but to play one or more of his players out of position. Wayne Bridge, normally an understudy to fellow 21-year-old Ashley Cole at left wingback, could be moved forward 20 metres.

Striker Emile Heskey could equally be pulled back 20 metres— as he was occasionally required to do during qualifying. Unluckily for Eriksson, though, Cole has now tweaked a knee ligament that has plagued him since Christmas. While England officials played down the problem on Wednesday, the news was not reassuring.

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Moving Heskey back would probably make way for Darius Vassell, yet another of the 21-year-old newcomers. Vassell, who scored on his England debut in February’s 1-1 draw with the Netherlands, also started Tuesday’s 1-1 draw with South Korea at Sogwipo, when Eriksson fielded a 4-3-3 formation with mixed results.

(Reuters)

Big deal if we don’t win: Desailly

Italy’s Paolo Maldini signs an autograph for a Japanese fan in Sendai. (Reuters)

IBUSUKI (Japan): Marcel Desailly would hate to have come to the World Cup for nothing. But the French captain says if the champions fail to retain their title it’s not going to be the end of the world. “I have not travelled over 10,000 kms left by wife and my children behind not to try to win the World Cup,” he said. “But if France prove not capable of clinching a second consecutive trophy, it’s not going to be end of the world. It’s not going to be the end of an era.” France know that as champions they are there to be shot at and will have to work hard to become the first nation to win two World Cups and a European title in a row. “Records are made to be broken,” Desailly told a media conference. “Winning this time would prove that our generation was exceptionally consistent in their performance. “It would mean that we were able to master all the factors like physical shape, luck and strategy longer than any other side.