England sicknotes may live to regret midweek pull-outs

Fabio Capello has surprised many by with his placid response to England’s raft of pull-outs ahead of tomorrow’s friendly against Germany.

Perhaps he simply knew it was coming, you can dress up all you like the fact this game is against the ‘Old Enemy’ and there are ‘no friendlies between England and Germany’ (how long before ITV’s match coverage team pull that old cliché out?), this is still a non-competitive game coming at a hectic time in the season when clubs are already suffering from lengthy injury lists.

Martin O’Neill’s description of the game as ‘meaningless’ may have been going a bit far, but even before the sudden glut of mysterious niggles amongst leading players, the result was never going to be do-or-die for Capello and his men.

The one thing that rankles me and perhaps, under the surface Capello, is the suggestion that some of the top clubs may not be entirely honest when they claim players are unfit to even attend training with the national side.

That would explain why he wanted to see Steven Gerrard himself and have him assessed by England’s doctors before ruling the Liverpool midfielder out.

How many of the likes of Rio Ferdinand, Wayne Rooney and Frank Lampard will suddenly be fit again for their clubs next weekend? How many would have played a crucial Champions League fixture tomorrow night? Or even, how many would have played in a key competitive qualifier?

I understand the clubs pay the players wages and now and again they do need a break from the weekend-midweek-weekend fixture cycle, but I wonder if choice is made by the players themselves or their club bosses.

I just get the feeling with Capello that, while he appears calm and accepting on the surface, he is making a mental note of all the players who have suddenly developed various strains or muscle tears and will not forget easily.

I know most of the players who have withdrawn are relatively sure of their places in the side at the moment and I’m not expecting Capello to jeopardise his team’s chances, but months down the line if the Italian has a borderline selection decision to make he might just take into account which player has regularly been available for selection when called upon.

I have a suspicion that John Terry, who seems to have developed a habit of missing England games with injury before making a miraculous recovery for Chelsea’s next fixture, may have lost out to Rio Ferdinand in the captaincy stakes if he had taken up the habit earlier.

At least for Capello the Germany game now offers a chance to test out some new faces and safely bracket the fixture in the ‘experimental’ category, meaning the result – baring total humiliation - will have little bearing on the feel-good factor created through recent victories in qualifying.

Following the game though, I think Capello will be looking out for those absentees who make a speedy comeback in next week’s Premier League fixtures and a small black mental mark may be going against their names.