OF course it was pure coincidence that, with the approach of Paul Gascoigne's 30th birthday Cat hay Pacific should ground their aircraft. The airline's decision was born of technical, rather than tactical. prudence.

Yesterday, in fact, Gascoigne celebrated his one score years and 10 by testing a bruised calf rather than killing the fatted version. The news that the injury he had suffered at the end of Saturday's friendly against South Africa at Old Trafford had eased sufficiently for a resumption of training was about the only glad tiding to reach Glenn Hoddle on the fitness front.

Tony Adams is but of the squad for Saturday's World Cup qualifier in Poland and the Four Nation tournament in France which starts next week. The Arsenal centre-back's damaged ankle was never likely to heal in time but this will be of little consolation to Hoddle as the England coach contemplates his diminished defensive options.

The knee injury Paul Ince received playing for Inter Milan on Sunday has added to Hoddle's anxieties. It is hoped that Ince will be able to train today. If not, then the plan to use Ince and David Batty both as a platform for Gascoigne and a barrier against Polish, counter-attacks will start to look a little wan.

Some, unconvinced by Gascoigne's performance in the fitful 2-1 win over the South Africans, feel that Hoddle's apparent determination to play Gascoigne in Chorzow falls into a similar category. Yesterday the England coach's defence of the way Gascoigne played began to sound a little desperate.

I don't think Paul Gascoigne had a poor game on Saturday," he insisted. "Those who said he did just don't know what they are talking about." When football people start saying things like that they are usually running out of arguments.

Gascoigne was unusually philosophical about it yesterday. Well, he is getting on after all. "I thought I did all right on Saturday," he said, "but I still got a lot of stick for it. I was too fat or too thin, it,, was the same story all over again.

A lot of the old bounce was missing yesterday. Gascoigne ran through the familiar litany of complaints about the treatment he was receiving from the media, but now he spoke not so much in anger as with an air of weary resignation.

Hoddle wants him to fall in love with football again, and while Gascoigne paid lip service to this sentiment he made it sound like an arranged marriage. "I know I've got to start enjoying it," he said. "It got to a point where I was just turning up for games, wanting to get a win for Rangers but really just wanting to get the 90 minutes over with."

Asked what had brought on this disillusionment, Gascoigne blamed the press. "Guys like yourselves never gave us a chance," he grumbled, "I was always getting hammered." Better than being stoned, surely.

There was a brief word on family matters, something about photographers hassling his wife and children outside their school. This of course, the same Paul Gascoigne who underwent counselling last October after accusations of wife-beating. Students of the politically correct may have considered it highly appropriate that on Saturday he was kicked by an opponent called Linda.

Hoddle's stout defence of Gascoigne's present form, and the contribution the player is likely to make should he play against Poland, suggests that the England coach is not so much at odds with the critics as looking for considerably less from Gazza '97 than the world witnessed in Italia '90.

Gascoigne himself is prepared to accept new limitations. "If there are a couple of players in front of me and I think I can take them on and get into the box then I'll do it,", he said, "but instead of taking on four players it might be better to split them with a pass.

"I have a different way of playing, but I want to do what's best for the team and not what's best for Paul Gascoigne. I'm not going to say I'm brilliant, I'm not going to say I'm crap. There's a game in Poland on Saturday, there are 22 people in the squad and I'm one of them. If I'm playing, I'm playing. If I ain't, I ain't."

Some might see in this refreshing evidence of a new, sensible Paul Gascoigne. But if his football is going to become orthodox then surely something precious in his make-up will be lost. Gascoigne cut a sad figure yesterday and even his one joke - "I've had me teeth done so I won't be needing a dentist's chair" - sounded well rehearsed.