Capello puts his trust in Eriksson's 'golden generation' for France match

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Fabio Capello will check on the fitness of two of his key players today after both Wayne Rooney and Frank Lampard reported for England duty with injuries picked up in yesterday's games. The England manager will at least have the chance to assess their fitness before he decides to call up some of the players he cut on Saturday night.

For Wednesday's friendly against France in Paris, Capello is quickly discovering the problems of availability of major English players for internationals at the business end of the domestic season. Rooney began limping with about 20 minutes left to play at Old Trafford yesterday and Lampard has a problem with his hip. "I got a kick on my hip in the first half and it was pretty painful all the way through," he said.

Capello has been entrusted with England's future, but he relied a great deal on the team's past in his 23-man squad to face France. From the players who survived the cut on Saturday to meet at their Hertfordshire hotel last night, 16 were in the party that Sven Goran Eriksson took to the 2006 World Cup finals.

In a squad with a distinctly retro look, the four strikers – Rooney, Michael Owen, Peter Crouch and Theo Walcott – were the quartet whom Eriksson took to Germany almost two years ago. In Capello's eyes, evidently, the so-called golden generation is not as tarnished as so many believe. His final decision on Saturday night was a kick in the teeth for those players who have sought to gain a foothold in the squad.

The news to the unlucky six who were fit but dropped was delivered by text message on Saturday night from the Football Association's squad organiser. It is a characteristically unsympathetic way of delivering bad news by the Italian, who is not one for a mollifying chat and an arm around the shoulder.

From the original 30-man squad, the goalscorers against Switzerland in Capello's first game in charge – Chelsea's winger Shaun Wright-Phillips and Tottenham Hotspur's midfielder Jermaine Jenas – were both dropped. Also left out were the Aston Villa striker Gabriel Agbonlahor, Portsmouth striker Jermain Defoe, Villa's winger Ashley Young and the young Boro centre-half David Wheater. Villa's keeper Scott Carson and the West Ham defender Matthew Upson withdrew injured, which meant that, for the first time, Capello selected the Tottenham goalkeeper Paul Robinson.

Wigan Athletic's goalkeeper Chris Kirkland withdrew from the squad last night with a back injury. West Ham United's Robert Green has been called in as his replacement.

Should Rooney pull out of the squad, Agbonlahor or Defoe would be hoping to receive a call-up.

David Beckham has told the FA that he is fit despite a brief fear over a groin injury that he sustained while playing for Los Angeles Galaxy at the weekend.