Chelsea pair out of England squad

Frank Lampard, pictured, and Ryan Bertrand have pulled out of England's squad ahead of the game against San Marino
11 October 2012

Chelsea duo Frank Lampard and Ryan Bertrand have withdrawn from the England squad ahead of the World Cup qualifier against San Marino.

Lampard has been nursing a knee injury and will not be risked against the group minnows while Bertrand has a sore throat which has not improved sufficiently.

The Football Association announced this morning that both men will return to the European champions for treatment over the next couple of days before reporting back to the England camp on Sunday for assessment before Tuesday's tricky trip to Poland.

Lampard's withdrawal leaves coach Roy Hodgson with a decision to make over the captaincy.

With regular skipper Steven Gerrard suspended, his deputy Lampard was in line to wear the armband at a sold-out Wembley on Friday night.

His absence opens the door for someone else, with Manchester City goalkeeper Joe Hart reportedly in the frame.

Hart, however, believes the honour should go to striker Wayne Rooney.

"I've no idea who is going to be captain but I am pretty sure it will fall to Rooney," said Hart.

"He is our star man with 10 million caps at the age of whatever he is, 26?

"I imagine he is a little bit further up the queue than me."

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