England News

• Nickname:Three Lions
• Founded: 1872
• Manager:Roy Hodgson

• Ground:Wembley Stadium
• Capacity:90,000

Captain Rio to miss Egypt clash

25 Feb 2010 - 10:08:03

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England captain Rio Ferdinand will miss next week's friendly international against Egypt because of his troublesome back injury.

The Manchester United defender will miss Wednesday's game at Wembley after feeling a twinge in his back earlier this week.

He was forced to sit out Tuesday's 3-0 victory against West Ham United and had already been ruled out of this weekend's Carling Cup Final against Aston Villa.

Ferdinand had only recently returned to action after being sidelined for more than three months with a long-standing back complaint.

Next Wednesday's game against Egypt would have been the 31-year-old's first chance of leading out his country since John Terry was stripped of the captaincy.

United Sir Alex Ferguson said earlier in the week: "Rio tweaked his back in training and he won't be ready for Sunday. It's unfortunate for him that he's going to miss a couple of games.

"Rio's been training great too. There have been no mishaps at all, but when you get these twinges you can't take a chance."