John Terry looked set to to be ruled out of England's World Cup qualifier against Kazakhstan on Saturday after a back injury prevented him from training on the eve of the match.
As the rest of Fabio Capello's squad was put through their paces at Arsenal's training ground here, England's captain was receiving treatment on an injury that has prevented him from training all week.
Fellow centreback Rio Ferdinand was expected to stand in for Terry as skipper with Joleon Lescott the favourite to partner the Manchester United man at the heart of the defence.
England go into the match looking to build on last month's 4-1 win in Croatia and Capello is being tipped to field an attacking line-up with Emile Heskey, Wayne Rooney and Theo Walcott up front, ahead of a midfield trio of Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard and Gareth Barry.
