ALAN SHEARER will captain England against Italy in Wednesday's World Cup qualifier at Wembley. Deciding to return the armband to the Newcastle striker Tony Adams led the side against Georgia in November in Shearer's absence was the least of Glenn Hoddle's problems when the squad began its preparations yesterday.

The England coach has six players under treatment. Adams and Paul Gascoigne, both suffering from ankle injuries, and Paul Ince, who has a thigh strain, are giving Hoddle most cause for concern.

In addition, David Seaman has a knee problem, Robert Lee's groin strain could mean an early return to Newcastle after the weekend and even Shearer is slight doubtful with pains in his lower back restricting his running.

Hoddle has called in Liverpool's Jamie Redknapp as midfield cover and may need to bring in more players if some of the injuries do not improve over the weekend.

"We have six influential players who need two or three more days of rest and recuperation," the England coach explained. "It's very frustrating. We've waited three months since the last game and I was hoping to do a major part of the work for the Italy match on Friday and Saturday. Now that's all gone out the window."

A worldly-wise Italian journalist put it to Hoddle that such alarmist noises could be taken as a smokescreen. "Smokescreen?" Hoddle replied, "I wish there was a smokescreen. These injuries are causing us genuine concern and "especially those affecting Gascoigne, Adams and Ince."

Shearer's present inability to veer from a straight line - which, when being interviewed, he rarely does anyway - may be a mixture of truth and kidology, but Hoddle's plans have been sufficiently upset, for Monday's training session, originally planned for Wembley to give the players practice in something approaching match conditions, has been switched back to Bisham.

It is never easy, before games as crucial as this, to distinguish reports of ill health from hyperbole. Yesterday morning, for instance, the word from Scotland suggested that Rangers had pulled Gascoigne out of the squad.

"I don't know where that came from," Hoddle mused. "I've not spoken to Walter Smith (the Rangers manager) for three or four days but when I did, everything concerning Paul was positive."

Nevertheless, there must be strong doubts about Gascoigne, who has only just had the plaster removed from the ankle he damaged in a six-a-side tournament in Amsterdam. Before passing the player fit for Wednesday, Hoddle will need to be convinced that any muscle wastage has been restored and, that Gascoigne is not a calf-strain waiting to happen.

"I cannot afford to send out three players who are only 80 to 85 per cent fit," Hoddle stressed. "At the moment the situation with Gascoigne is very dicey."

No change there then. And after giving the impression, when the squad was announced a week ago, that he was thinking of leaving the captaincy with Adams, the England coach made it clear that Shearer remained his first choice and would be for the foreseeable future.

"Tony's reaction was like a captain's," said Hoddle. "There was no problem at all. He was more concerned about his ankle, and that is the right attitude. And his attitude has become even better over the past year."

Hoddle reaffirmed his faith in Shearer's leadership qualities, faith generated by his presence on and off the field.

"Come the 90 minutes, the first player our opponents are going to" be talking about is Alan Shearer," the England coach insisted, "and if you hand him the armband, it will add power to your arm instead of taking it away.

"So long as it doesn't affect his play, and it hasn't done. At first I was worried that the goals might dry up. But he scored against Moldova and twice against Poland, so he obviously doesn't have a problem there."

Hoddle quoted Platini, Cruyff and Maradona as examples of what he meant by having the "right sort of presence" for captaincy.

"These players were the first ones to be given the armband, not because they're the best captains as such, in fact they may be playing in the wrong positions, but they've got this instant respect which I think you need at international level. And Alan commands respect from his fellow-players, from opponents and from referees."

David Batty and Graeme Le Saux, fellow-pugilists when Blackburn met Spartak Moscow in Russia in last season's Champions League, look set to appear in an England team together for the first time since England's 3-1 defeat against Brazil at Wembley in the 1995 Umbro Cup tournament when Terry Venables was in charge.

Le Saux scored England's goal with a stunning shot, Batty kicked Juninho and now the pair are playing for different clubs.