Paul Scholes is a doubtful starter for England’s must win game against Switzerland in Coimbra on Thursday because of an ankle injury.
England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson revealed that the Manchester United midfielder had twisted his ankle during last night’s 2-1 defeat against France.
Eriksson said: “Paul Scholes is a doubt for Thursday. He has an ankle injury. He will not practice today and maybe not tomorrow.”
If Scholes is ruled out his Manchester United team-mate Nicky Butt could come into the England midfield for the Swiss game.
Eriksson is relying on the “English mentality” to ensure his team bounce back from their shattering defeat against France.
England appeared to have got their tactics correct against the reigning champions and led 1-0 with the 90 minutes of normal time played, but lost 2-1 at the Stadium of Light in Lisbon last night.
“Knowing the English mentality, I think they will look forward to Thursday,” said Eriksson.
“I think they would like to play today again, and show that the last three minutes against France can’t happen again.
“If we perform like that again I think we will go through and have a good tournament.
“I should be happy if we can go on playing like we did, I think we played a fantastic game yesterday.
“If you take away the last three minutes of extra-time, they did exactly what we asked them to do.
“Considering we matched France and gave them very few possibilities during the 90 minutes, if I was to do it again I would do it same way.
“If you see football on this level, I can remember only two games like it - Bayern Munich v Manchester United [1999 Champions League final] and maybe the final, Italy v France, at Euro 2000.”