LONDON: England were left sweating over captain John Terry's availability for the World Cup qualifier against Kazakhstan on Saturday after the Chelsea centreback missed training on Tuesday with a sore back.
Terry was one of four players to miss Fabio Capello's first session in the build-up to a match England will be expected to win comfortably before embarking on a more complicated trip to Belarus next week.
The other absentees were Terry's Chelsea team-mate Ashley Cole - a certain starter if fit - and back-up pair Wes Brown and Stewart Downing.
All four were confined to gym work but England's medical staff expect them to be back in full training on Wednesday. Chelsea boss Luiz Felipe Scolari admitted at the weekend that Terry was unlikely to be 100 percent but predicted that his captain would start for England regardless.
Joe Cole is England's most notable absentee having been ruled out of the two upcoming matches because of a foot injury. Fit-again Steven Gerrard is expected to take his place in a line-up that will have to be reshuffled from the one which beat Croatia 4-1 in Zagreb last month.