Roy Hodgson happy to see England plans undisrupted by transfer deadline day

Some England players had been linked with late moves but none came to fruition

Roy Hodgson: The England manager has re-jigged his squad after several injuries (PA)

Roy Hodgson got his wish for England's players not to have their World Cup preparations disrupted by transfer business on Monday - and now they must set their sights firmly on Friday's Wembley clash with Moldova.

Hodgson asked for any transfers involving members of the England squad to be done before they gathered at St George's Park.

And with Leighton Baines not attracting any further interest from Manchester United, that is exactly what happened.

It means there were no late nights or mad dashes to different parts of the country.

Even so, Hodgson's preparations are not beginning totally without concern.

For, whilst Daniel Sturridge scored his fifth goal of the season to earn Liverpool victory over Manchester United and maintain their 100% record at Anfield on Sunday, afterwards the Reds striker reported continuing pain from a groin injury that threatened his participation even in the warm-up.

And Hodgson will want the injury assessed extensively before pushing Sturridge forward to feature against Moldova and the hugely important meeting with Ukraine in Kiev on September 10.

Hodgson's men opened their World Cup qualifying campaign with a five-goal hammering of the Moldovans 12 months ago.

On that evidence it was felt the Eastern Europeans would be lucky to get any points other than the six they were likely to claim against minnows San Marino.

As it turns out, Moldovan have also taken points off Ukraine and Poland, who in turn have avoided defeat in their meetings with England.

And those results have put Hodgson on red alert.

"Moldova also lost in the last minute to a very fortunate goal against Montenegro otherwise they'd have an even better points tally," said Hodgson.

"I don't think I need to caution the players or guard against complacency and I don't think I've seen any signs of that in the games we've played.

"If I did think any complacency was creeping in I'd be very quick to move in and quash it."

PA