But Butt showed that he can play a major part in his own right with a man-of-the-match performance in the victory over Argentina alongside his club team-mate Paul Scholes.

What made it even more impressive was that it was Butt’s first appearance since he suffered a knee injury five weeks ago.

Now Eriksson will be looking for a repeat showing when England aim to secure their spot in the second phase by avoiding defeat against Nigeria in Osaka on Wednesday.

The England coach admitted: ‘‘I must say I was surprised by the performance of Nicky Butt on Friday. It was a positive surprise and he played extremely well.

‘‘You could not see from the way he played that he’s been away for a long time with an injury. He is a very important player for us.

‘‘He is the sitting type of midfielder who breaks up attacks and wins a lot of balls which is an important role because without the ball you cannot do anything yourself.

‘‘I asked him afterwards if he was tired but he said ’no’ although he had some blisters on his feet.’’

England will have an extra incentive to top their group as that would give them an extra day to recuperate from what are expected to be very hot conditions in Osaka before they play again on Sunday.

If they lose out on top spot to either Sweden or Argentina, then their second-phase match would take place 24 hours earlier.

Eriksson said: ‘‘The climate was perfect for us in Sapporo but we can’t play every game there so Wednesday will be very hot and we are playing early in the day as well so we have to prepare for that.

‘‘But that is why we acclimatised the way we did before the tournament and played the Cameroon who are quite similar to Nigeria.

‘‘If we were to get an extra day before the next game by topping the group, then that would be very good. An extra day would be beneficial. If you could choose, you would want to top the group.

‘‘But let’s just hope first and foremost that we have an extra game to play after June 12 by getting a positive result against Nigeria. Until we do that, we are not through.’’

Eriksson will again stress to his team the importance of maintaining the shape of their play which went badly astray against Sweden but was preserved almost to perfection against Argentina.

He said: ‘‘I have talked to them about that because if you lose the shape, then life is more difficult and if you win the ball back you don’t know where the players are.

‘‘I must have said ’keep the shape’ 100 times before the Argentinian game and we did that and have to do the same on Wednesday.’’