Pearce hit by triple U21 injury blow

Jack Rodwell, Andy Carroll and Henri Lansbury have all had to pull out of England Under-21s' final two European U21 Championship qualifiers. Ahead of the Group Nine matches against Portugal and Lithuania.Midfield star Rodwell returned to Everton on Tuesday after failing to recover from an ankle injury picked up in his club's Premier League defeat at Aston Villa on Sunday.In-form striker Carroll pulled out after being troubled by a similar injury for the past week, although he did play through the pain to score in Newcastle's 1-1 draw at Wolves on Saturday before being substituted late on.Lansbury, meanwhile, has gone back to Arsenal due to a slight groin injury.The withdrawals are bad news for England Under-21s, who need to win both Friday's match in Portugal and Tuesday's game against Lithuania - and hope Greece do not win in Macedonia on Saturday - to guarantee a place in next summer's finals.Stuart Pearce's side trained for a second day at London Colney on Tuesday and will fly out to Portugal on Wednesday to continue their preparations ahead of Friday night's match with the Portuguese.Pearce later lost goalkeeper Alex Smithies to a dead leg picked up in Huddersfield's midweek Carling Cup second-round thrashing at Everton.Smithies was replaced in the squad by Middlesbrough's Jason Steele for the Portugal game but could yet rejoin the party for Tuesday's match in Colchester.

Source: Team_Talk