Phil Jagielka and Aaron Lennon out of England squad

Posted Sunday, October 10, 2010 by theguardian.com

Phil Jagielka and Aaron Lennon out of England squad
Everton's Phil Jagielka has impressed Fabio Capello but has been ruled out by England.

England's preparations for Tuesday's Euro 2012 qualifier against Montenegro at Wembley have been disrupted by injuries to Phil Jagielka and Aaron Lennon. Jagielka and Lennon will miss the match with hamstring and back injuries respectively.

Jagielka's injury has spared Fabio Capello a major selection headache. Having hailed the Everton defender as the "driver" of his defence following last month's 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 next week – even though both Rio Ferdinand and John Terry are available after injury.

Although the Football Association was initially optimistic Jagielka would be fine after pulling out of a practice match at the end of yesterday'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.

Jagielka's injury spares Capello the job of dropping either Terry or Ferdinand, who has not been told whether he is to keep the captaincy after missing eight of England's 10 games since he was appointed.

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

Gary Cahill has been called up as cover for Jagielka, meaning Bolton now have two players in the squad following the surprise selection of their veteran striker Kevin Davies. Aston Villa's Stewart Downing will replace Lennon.

To counter the bad news, Capello did receive a fillip yesterday evening when Gareth Barry arrived at England's training base in Watford. 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 Tottenham's Tom Huddlestone is the only other orthodox central midfield player in his squad.