Terry ready to soldier on for Chelsea and England

The England captain John Terry will travel to Spain with Chelsea today and plans to play in the Champions League game against Valencia tomorrow with a protective face-mask. Surgery on his fractured cheekbone on Sunday means that he now looks a certainty to be fit for England's crucial Euro 2008 qualifiers.

It was the best news yet for Steve McClaren who has so many injury concerns ahead of England's month's Euro 2008 qualifiers that he said yesterday that there are "Plans A to Z" dependent on whoever comes through fit. But the England manager insisted that it would be him who dictated to his biggest names whether they were ready to play.

Terry, Michael Owen, Frank Lampard, Owen Hargreaves and Gary Neville are all either struggling with injury or potentially returning from absences as McClaren prepares to name his squad to face Estonia and Russia on Friday. With qualification within England's grasp over their final three games in Group E the England manager said he would be prepared to be ruthless when it came to selecting his side.

Dean Ashton, the West Ham striker who has three goals in four games this season, is set to be a part of McClaren's squad for the first time since he broke an ankle in preparation for the friendly against Greece in August last year. Otherwise McClaren said that he expected Owen and Terry to be fit to play in the games at Wembley on 13 October and in Moscow four days later.

"We will have to see what the outcome is and take it day by day," McClaren said. "Both Michael and John Terry seem to be very, very confident of coming back very quickly. We all know that with injuries and rehab things can go wrong.

"I don't think we will really know until the clubs or the players wish to say something. We have had to cope with players pulling ut before and we will cope again. Of course they have to be fit and they have to be fit enough to contribute to us winning. Sometimes you do have to be ruthless. There are one or two players who played against Russia who had little knocks and injuries. Maybe we wouldn't have risked it normally but because it was such a big game we did."

The England manager says that he has no intention of repeating the mistakes of the 2002 World Cup when both David Beckham and Owen went into the tournament much less than fully fit. McClaren said that he would consider not picking Owen if he was not convinced that the player was fit. Given that Owen has said he may well be fit for Newcastle's game against Everton on Sunday he seems to be confident of being ready for England.

The German surgeon who carried out two operations on Owen yesterday said that the procedures had been "perfect". Dr Ulrike Muschaweck carried out a hernia operation and repaired a 3cm tear in the player's abductor muscle on Friday and Saturday. "I think in eight to 10 days he can be back in full activity," she said.

McClaren was speaking at a roadshow to promote the Football Association Tesco Skills Programme at West Bromwich Albion's academy. The programme aims to give one million five to 11-year-olds specialist coaching by the summer of 2010. They will be too late for McClaren's benefit but, having beaten Israel and Russia last month, he said he was ready to bring in Ashton.

The 23-year-old had "forced his way in" McClaren said. "I have been watching him from pre-season onwards, he comes into consideration." Gary Neville is the furthest away from fitness and will be fortunate to play for Manchester United's reserves this week but Hargreaves could be involved tonight against Roma. Lampard, Terry and Owen all have a chance of playing at the weekend at the latest.

As one of the few English managers to beat Jose Mourinho, McClaren also paid tribute to the former Chelsea manager. "I got on well with him and as England manager I could not have wanted anyone better to work with," he said. "He invited me in gave access to the players and let me make the decisions on the players. He really did support me all the way through. It is sad to lose someone of that calibre and that character."