England hit by triple injury blow

14 November 2010 22:25
John Terry, Ashley Cole and Gabriel Agbonlahor have pulled out of the England squad to face France at Wembley on Wednesday.[LNB] Agbonlahor's withdrawal will have come as little surprise to Fabio Capello - the Aston Villa forward started his first game since September 26 against Manchester United and was taken off before the end with a knock.[LNB]Carlton Cole was called up earlier on Sunday as cover for Agbonlahor and Andy Carroll, who remains a doubt himself, but there was further bad news to come from Chelsea.[LNB]Terry missed his side's 3-0 home defeat to Sunderland after suffering a nerve problem in training that is leading to pain in a gluteal muscle and hamstring.[LNB]Chelsea boss Carlo Ancelotti said: "Terry trained yesterday but, at the end of the training session, he had pain on his nerve in his hamstring and we had the test this morning.[LNB]"He has had control of this problem. He never missed a training session but yesterday the pain was more, so he was not able to play.[LNB]"But I think he can play the next game. It is an injury, but he can control it. He has controlled it for 12 games.[LNB]"He's doing good prevention, good treatment. Everything will be okay for him."[LNB]The loss of Cole - one of England's few plus points in South Africa - with an unspecified problem, could mean Arsenal's Kieran Gibbs is handed his first senior start.[LNB]Bolton's Gary Cahill and Aston Villa full-back Stephen Warnock have been called in as replacements to join the four uncapped players who were selected yesterday; Carroll, Chris Smalling, Jordan Henderson and Bothroyd.[LNB]However, Carroll's hopes of making his debut are in the balance after it was found the Newcastle striker is suffering from a minor groin injury.[LNB]Carroll joined up with Fabio Capello's squad at their Watford base on Sunday even evening but it remains to be seen whether he will be fit to take part in training at Arsenal's London Colney complex on Monday morning.[LNB]If the 21-year-old does prove his fitness, he is likely to be handed his debut at some stage, given the only other strikers at Capello's disposal are Cole, Peter Crouch and Jay Bothroyd, who could become the first Cardiff player to represent England and the first from the Football League since David Nugent in 2007.

Source: Team_Talk