Becks and Gerrard back in training

Adrian Curtis13 April 2012

England were provided with a timely boost today ahead of tomorrow's friendly with Holland when captain David Beckham and Steven Gerrard trained with the squad.

Both Manchester United midfielder Beckham and Gerrard, of Liverpool, picked up knocks in the weekend games with Charlton and Ipswich respectively.

But coach Sven-Goran Eriksson was boosted by them taking part in this morning's training session at Bisham Abbey.

Having already lost striker Michael Owen to a knee ligament injury yesterday, Eriksson's-party was being stretched by illness and injury.

Beckham insisted yesterday that anyone would do anything to get fit for an England match and it appeared he was good to his word until he suffered a small twinge during the opening session this morning.

England had already lost West Ham's Trevor Sinclair (virus) and Tottenham's Darren Anderton (hamstring) when they met up yesterday.

Anderton said today: "I've returned to Tottenham for treatmenton a hamstring strain and that's disappointing from my point of view.

"Trevor Sinclair is also very disappointed. Every player wants to go to the World Cup and this would have been another opportunity for both of us to press our claims for a place in the final squad. Hopefully we will get another chance.

"My main concern now is to get over this injury, which I would like to stress isn't too serious. I am enjoying my football and I don't want to miss any more games." Meanwhile, police 'spotters' are patrolling Gatwick and Heathrow airports to stop known football hooligans travelling to the Netherlands ahead of tomorrow's match.

The crackdown is part of the nationwide Operation Meson to stop any violence at the international game between Holland and England.

Anyone seen at the airports, who has previous convictions for football violence, will be banned from travelling and have their passports seized.

Sergeant Richard Hamlin, from Brighton police who is supervising the Gatwick team, said: "We are going to be actively talking to all passengers who leave Gatwick Airport to fly to the Netherlands.

"Law-abiding members of the public have nothing to worry about at all, our aim is to simply stop those people who have a history of violence and disorder at football matches.

"We are actively looking for them, and anyone we see who we suspect wants to cause trouble at the game will be stopped before they get on a plane."

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