Central role for Scholes

Despite the odd back-page injury scare, a measure of the comfortable state of Kevin Keegan's England squad preparing to face Germany at Wembley tomorrow can be gauged from the fact that the biggest news emerging from England's Burnham Beeches headquarters yesterday was that three of Britain's Olympic gold medallists from Sydney - Denise Lewis, Stephen Redgrave and Audley Harrison - are to be paraded before the game in an attempt to add to the feel-good factor encircling Wembley's last ever international occasion.

Given that another day of build-up amounted to another day of good news for England, the Olympian idea added to the sense of well-being, and it would almost be understandable if Keegan actually wanted to something to happen to cause him a sleepless night.

This time the heartening health bulletin centred on David Beckham, Steven Gerrard and Martin Keown, all of whom trained yesterday and all of whom came through positively. Beckham, who revealed he damaged a left knee ligament a fortnight ago, said he had been able to train properly for the first time this week and was able to practise the corners and free-kicks he hopes will feature prominently at Wembley. "I'm 95 per cent now," he said, "and I hope to be 100 per cent by tomorrow."

If that was Beckham's good news, then his bad came in the form of Paul Scholes' responses to media questioning. Scholes was talking about the need for him to be more responsible defensively, a sign that he, rather than Beckham, will play in central midfield.

"Maybe I did try and get forward too much in Euro 2000," said Scholes, who played effectively as a second striker between Andy Cole and Beckham in Paris last month. Judging from his comment, Scholes will be back in a 4-4-2 formation with Beckham on the right.

Craig Burley is out of Scotland's World Cup qualifier in San Marino tomorrow. The Derby midfielder is not regarded as fit enough to take part, especially as Scotland have a much tougher assignment in Croatia four days afterwards. Scotland manager Craig Brown is desperate for Burley to play in Zagreb.