England Squad Reaction

Roy Hodgson has his fingers, toes, everything crossed, praying that all the key players in his 23-man squad make it safely through the Premier League weekend and report fit for duty for the final, crucial World Cup Qualifiers against Montenegro and Poland.

This is crunch time for England and Hodgson will need all hands on deck as he goes into the biggest week of his footballing life.

So it would be extremely comforting for him and for the 50,000 plus Three Lions fans who have already bought tickets for nect summer’s Finals in Brazil if Wayne Rooney, Daniel Sturridge and Danny Welbeck, all missing when England drew in Ukraine last month, were available for selection.

The equation is simple: two wins equals qualification. There may be another way through the play-offs, but Hodgson and his players won’t be thinking about that; they must, and will, be going into these games with nothing but victory on their minds.

That does not mean, however, that England should be gung ho. Gary Lineker recently referred to Montenegro and Poland as “mediocre”, but we couldn’t beat either side in the away ties (both games finished 1-1), so there are no grounds to be dismissive. A bit of respect and realism is needed here and fortunately Hodgson is happy to provide it without losing trust in the ability of his own men to get the jobs done.

Consequently, I expect him to be quite conservative when he selects his teams. There has been a clamour for Ashley Cole to be replaced by the more attacking Leighton Baines, but he will probably at least start with the Chelsea left-back.

There has also been much talk of Fraser Forster taking over from Joe Hart in goal following the number one’s iffy display against Bayern Munich. Forster was quite sensational for Celtic in midweek and continues to build his case, but it is inconceivable that Hodgson is about to drop Hart after giving him such unequivocal backing yesterday.

This is good management; the last thing Hart needs right now is the England manager doubting him and in truth Hodgson was probably more worried long term by just how impressive a Bayern side that includes many of the German first X1, were against Manchester City.

Germany, who sailed through qualifying, are 5/1 joint second favourites with Coral to win the World Cup outright – England are a best-priced 28/1.