Football: Southgate and Ehiogu ready for return to Wembley

Terry Venables was able to breathe a sigh of relief last night when the remaining members of his England squad came through their big match tests at Wembley and Old Trafford unscathed to report for Wednesday's friendly against Bulgaria.

Gareth Southgate and Ugo Ehiogu, Coca-Cola Cup winners with Aston Villa, could both be back in action at Wembley on Wednesday as centre-backs Gary Pallister and Tony Adams are both missing. Phil Neville was substituted in Manchester United's 1-0 win over Tottenham but is reported fit to join the England squad.

Brian O'Neil jumped from Celtic's reserves to the full Scotland international squad as Craig Brown left the Euro 96 door open for Duncan Ferguson, one of six players who have pulled out of Wednesday's friendly with Australia at Hampden Park through injury.

The Rangers trio of Andy Goram, Alan McLaren and Stuart McCall are injured and have been withdrawn from Brown's original 23-man pool, which also lost Celtic's Tosh McKinlay and Colin Calderwood of Spurs.

However, O'Neil is the only addition to the squad to complete an 18-man selection. The 23-year-old defender suffered a serious knee injury on the eve of last season's Scottish Cup final and only returned to the Celtic side in February. After four full games he was dropped back in the reserves by Tommy Burns and was not in the squad for Saturday's 0-0 draw at Motherwell.

A back injury has forced the Sheffield United goalkeeper, Alan Kelly, to withdraw from the Republic of Ireland squad for Wednesday's friendly against Russia at Lansdowne Road.