Steve McClaren has confirmed Ashley Cole is a doubt to face Russia on Wednesday after injuring his ankle against Estonia.

The England left-back landed awkwardly when tracking back inside his own box and was clearly in discomfort while receiving treatment.

Cole had to be carried off on a stretcher having been unable to walk under his own power.

There was obvious concern on the England bench and McClaren admits it will be an anxious next 24 hours waiting to discover the full extent of the injury.

"Ashley Cole is obviously a doubt," McClaren told Sky Sports. "He rocked his ankle.

"That will be assessed over the next 24 hours which will be a critical period.

"It was a bit unfortunate because we were only going to give him another 10 or 15 minutes to make sure we started the second-half well."

Terry getting better

England could welcome back John Terry in Russia after McClaren gave a positive update on the England captain's knee injury.

He said: "John Terry looked better again this morning and we'll assess it tomorrow.

"If he gets better and better who knows, Monday he might train or travel with us and train on Tuesday.

"But he's still a doubt."

Is it 11 AM or PM? I think it's PM

I think the game's at 2150hrs?  not 2300 hrs lah

England have received a huge boost with the news that captain John Terry has been cleared to play against Russia on Wednesday.

The Chelsea skipper missed the weekend clash with Estonia due to a knee injury picked up in training last week.

Now after coming through sessions on Monday and Tuesday in Moscow, England's medical staff have cleared Terry to play.

Terry is now set to return to the starting XI at the expense of Sol Campbell, who replaced him against Estonia.

Fully fit

"Yes, I'm fully fit," confirmed Terry.

"My knee had sort of locked up, I think a bit of bone or cartilage was floating about and then it swelled up. With massage it has managed to dislodge itself."

Operation

It was revealed, however, that Terry would require a minor operation on his knee in the near future.

"I will have to have an operation in the near future, it is just a question of when.

"We will have to remove that bit of floating bone. I will be back playing in a week after the op I am told."

Terry admits his side are looking back to 2003 when England went to Turkey and claimed a goalless draw to seal a place at Euro 2004.

"I think we can emulate the Istanbul team," Terry said. "To do it over here will be a great achievement.

"It is going to be tough place. There will be a very hostile crowd and they will be a very different team to the one we beat last month. They are going to be pumped up after getting beat at Wembley."

English heroes

Terry also admitted he wants his side to kick-off what could be a great week for English sport, with the Rugby Union team in the World Cup final on Saturday, and Lewis Hamilton in position to claim the Formula One world title on Sunday.

"It is a challenge for us but hopefully we can do the right thing and get the right result and then it is down to the rugby boys and Lewis Hamilton.

"It starts with us and hopefully we can get the job done.

John Terry's involvement in England's Euro 2008 qualifier against Russia has been thrown into major doubt.

The centre-back, who had only just been passed fit for the clash, locked his knee in Tuesday afternoon's training and now looks certain to miss the vital encounter.

The Chelsea man was absent from the weekend clash with Estonia due to a knee injury picked up in training last week.

However, he had been given the green light to play after coming through sessions on Monday and Tuesday morning in Moscow.

But Steve McClaren has now confirmed that Terry is almost certainly out of Wednesday's game after failing to come through the afternoon session unscathed.

"John Terry is almost certainly ruled out of tomorrow's match. His knee locked towards the end of training and he could not complete the session," he said.

Sol Campbell is likely to replace Terry in the heart of the England defence after starting alongside Rio Ferdinand in Saturday's 3-0 win over Estonia.

Nice... Is this confirmed or just guess only?    The lineup not available yet, right?

Forward... Rooney & Tevez? Rooney & Saha?  I prefer Rooney & Saha. 

Four England fans were taken to hospital after being injured ahead of the clash against Russia, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said.

Two have already been discharged and the remaining two are expected to be released from hospital in Moscow later on Wednesday.

They suffered minor injuries in a fight on Tuesday night, an FCO spokesman said, although he could not confirm whether they were attacked by rival football supporters.

Officials from the British embassy in Moscow are on standby in case of further trouble around the crunch game, which kicks off at 4pm.

The FCO spokesman said: "As with every international match, a lot of liaison does go on between the relevant policing authorities, the football associations and other interested parties so that everything runs smoothly and with the minimum of incident.''

unknown,

Kindly update the thread with the scores if you can.

I updated the first goal on the title bar just now, but now i'm off to bed. Got meeting tomolow and another long day at work.

ENGLAND boss Steve McClaren rounded on the referee after seeing his side's hopes of European Championship qualification suffer a potentially fatal blow against Russia.

Wayne Rooney gave England a half-time lead with a brilliant volleyed opener but substitute Roman Pavluchenko levelled from the spot and was first to react to Paul Robinson's parry minutes later.

McClaren struggled to process the fact England had lost and blamed referee Luis Medina Cantalejo for awarding a penalty against Rooney when his challenge appeared outside the box.

"We had it. It was in our grasp and we've ended up losing it," McClaren said on Sky Sports 1.

"I've just seen the penalty again. It's an absolute disgrace . It's outside the box. The linesman didn't give it. It was the referee from quite some distance. Things like that turn games.

"We were comfortable. They were running out of ideas and that just turned the game.

"It was a mad four minutes after that and unfortunately we conceded a second.

"But I can't fault the players for the gameplan, the way they've endeavoured to work, the commitment, the blocks we got in, the headers."

"We've ended up losing a game that really, after 70 minutes, I never thought we'd lose."

Stand-in skipper Steven Gerrard missed a glorious chance to make it 2-0 to England and McClaren admitted the visitors were made to pay.

The coach continued: "You get very few chances coming away. We failed to take them."

McClaren refused to blame the controversial artificial pitch on which the game was played.

"The pitch had nothing to do with it," he said.

"It was lively. They had more preparation, but I'm not making that an excuse."

England now must hope Russia fail to win in Israel on November 17 to stand any real chance of qualifying.

McClaren added: "Obviously it puts us in a bad position. It's out of our hands. We've got to rely on Israel getting a result from Russia next month and then we take it from there.

"We're not giving up. We'll take it to the end."

McClaren is hoping Israel do his side a favour.

"It's a tough place to go, Israel," he said.

"Russia, the pressure's on again. They have to go and win.

"They've still got a lot of work to do."

Manchester United midfielder Owen Hargreaves has been ruled out of England's friendly with Austria on Friday with a knee injury.

Hargreaves will stay in Manchester to have treatment and his fitness will be reassessed at the weekend.

Owen Hargreaves has been ruled out England's clash with Austria with a knee injury.

The Manchester United midfielder will not make the trip to Austria after complaining of a knee problem.

Hargreaves has been troubled with a knee injury for most of the season and only recently made his return to the United first team.

The former Bayern Munich man will remain in Manchester to receive treatment on the knee and his fitness will be reassessed at the weekend ahead of next Wednesday's crucial Euro 2008 qualifier with Croatia.

England boss Steve McClaren will be keen to have Hargreaves fit for the clash with Croatia as it could decide the team's Euro 2008 fate if results go their way this weekend.

if russia wins tonite match that means england lose??

What time Russia playing? Any live? To be honest (No Offense you guyz) I really hope England for once didn't make it to euro. England need a strong wake up. First release Steve M. Find an appropriate coach such as Aston villa manager (What his name ?) He has a good record. Why on earth people never elect him. What a mistake

can i ask???? if croatia and england draw.... will both of them qualify or eng only?