Scott Parker is to captain England for the first time in Wednesday night's friendly with Holland at Wembley, according to reports.
Interim coach Stuart Pearce was due to tell his players at 10am in the morning who would lead the team, although he wanted the official announcement to wait until an hour before kick-off.
However, it is now being reported by Sky Sports News and the BBC that Parker has got the nod ahead of Steven Gerrard, who was thought to be in line.
The FA have so far refused to confirm the reports but it would continue a remarkable transformation for Parker.
Axed from Fabio Capello's provisional World Cup squad without playing in either of the two warm-up matches, Parker's international career appeared to be at an end.
However, when he was handed an unexpected chance in Denmark last February, it began a series of performances that led to him being crowned England's 2011 player of the year.
The 31-year-old has excelled since his summer move from West Ham to Tottenham and has been one of the key figures in his club's push for the Premier League title.
Formerly captain at West Ham, if Parker does lead the team, it will be interesting to see whether Gerrard is alongside him in the starting line-up.
Having been skipper of Liverpool for such a long time and captain of England at the World Cup, Gerrard would have been viewed as the automatic choice.
Pearce was determined to take his time though, insisting he wanted to see how the players interacted with each other over the short build-up. Although it has been claimed the entire captaincy issue is over-rated, Pearce disagreed, stating it was the proudest moment of his career when he did the job.
Source: PA
