England Football Fans

We'll start with the good news - Wayne Rooney has returned to Germany following a scan on hs broken foot, and will be available to play once he's worked on his match fitness. Most people seem to think we won't see him until the knockout stages of the tournament, but I wouldn't be surprised to see him come of the bench in one of the group matches.

The bad news is that Steven Gerrard is still suffering from the back injury he picked up in training on Tuesday. He missed training on Wednesday, and only tok part in the squad's warm-up session today. If he fails to recover in time Sven has a number of options to replace him in midfield - either by bringing a direct replacement into his position (Carrick would be the most obvious, but Carragher, Hargreaves and Jenas could all be potential replacements), or moving one of the wide players into a more central role and bringing in Downing or Lennon to play wide.