Butt injury concern for Eriksson
Midfielder Nicky Butt today emerged as Sven Goran Eriksson’s main injury doubt ahead of the World Cup qualifiers against Austria and Poland.
Eriksson had been fretting over the fitness of Manchester City winger Shaun Wright-Phillips, but his back injury was not as bad as first feared.
Wright-Phillips was taking part in England’s first session at Arsenal’s training ground near St Albans today.
Butt, however, was back at the team hotel receiving treatment on a hamstring injury which is causing the England medical staff some concern.
If he is ruled out of Saturday’s game in Vienna, Eriksson would have a number of midfield alternatives, including Owen Hargreaves, Joe Cole and Kieron Dyer, as well as Wright-Phillips and Jermaine Jenas.
Hargreaves was nevertheless absent from this afternoon’s session, although that was only because he was flying in from Germany, where he plays club football for Bayern Munich.
Manchester United duo Gary Neville and Alan Smith were also not taking part in the session as they had played in the Barclays Premiership draw against Everton yesterday.
Eriksson was still awaiting the arrivals of David Beckham and Michael Owen, who were due to take part in a friendly for Real Madrid tonight.
Eriksson had reached a compromise agreement with the Spanish club for two of his key players to play only the first 45 minutes of their Bernabeu Trophy game against Pumas de Mexico.
They were then scheduled to return to England on a private jet before hopefully taking some part in tomorrow’s session ahead of back-to-back qualifiers.
Eriksson is already without Wayne Rooney, Sol Campbell and Jonathan Woodgate through injury, while Rio Ferdinand is suspended and Paul Scholes has retired from international football.
