Lampard facing new Euro snub

Missing out: Frank Lampard looks downcast yesterday and seems unlikely to walk back in to the starting line-up

Disappointed Frank Lampard is set to be told today that he will not be playing for England against Russia.

Coach Steve McClaren will omit the Chelsea star from his team for the second time in a week and stick with Gareth Barry and Steven Gerrard in the centre of a four-man midfield for tomorrow afternoon's clash in Moscow.

McClaren was expected to change his formation to 4-3-3 with Lampard returning to the midfield but England trained on a plastic pitch in Macclesfield yesterday with a 4-4-2 formation before later flying out to a freezing Moscow.

Joleon Lescott, who looked a little uncertain at times when he replaced the injured Ashley Cole against Estonia on Saturday, was at left-back in the session while captain John Terry, who missed the Wembley match with a knee problem, was back at the centre of defence alongside Rio Ferdinand.

Medical staff revealed that Ashley Cole could now be ruled out for the next three months with serious ligament damage.

His Chelsea team-mates Joe Cole and Shaun Wright-Phillips were retained as McClaren's two wide players while Michael Owen and Wayne Rooney continued their problematical partnership up front.

Should the coach decide to stick to his favoured 4-4-2 set-up, it would be a bold move and also force Russia manager Guus Hiddink to consider changing his formation as a counter measure.

Hiddink is known to favour the three-man defensive style but would surely have to change to a flat back-four to oppose two central strikers and wide men Cole and Wright-Phillips.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in