Gerrard and Robinson will play, confirms McClaren

The Liverpool star has a broken toe but came through a training session today and it remains to be seen if he will require a pain-killing injection before a match England need to win to maintain realistic hopes of reaching next summer's finals in Switzerland and Austria.

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However, fellow midfielder Owen Hargreaves remains a doubt because of a thigh injury sustained during training on Wednesday. The Manchester United player will undergo a fitness test tomorrow morning.

McClaren also confirmed Paul Robinson will start in goal despite his mistake in the last England match against Germany.

McClaren revealed Gerrard had given him a major boost ahead of tomorrow's game after coming through this morning's training session unscathed.

He told Sky Sports News: "He has trained twice without an injection and if he plays tomorrow like he played this morning in training then everyone will be delighted.

"That's the kind of performance that we need and it's a big boost for everybody, most of all Stevie G because he desperately wants to play in this game. He came through it with no problems whatsoever."

Asked if he was pencilled in for tomorrow's game, McClaren replied: "I can more or less say yes."

But the prospect of Hargreaves featuring appears less certain.

"Owen Hargreaves will have a fitness test tomorrow morning. We are leaving it as late as possible to make a decision after that test to see if he can play in the afternoon," McClaren said.

"He is another one who wants to play every game. He wants to play tomorrow and we will give him every opportunity to do that but we will leave it upto the players and medics to make that decision."

The England manager also confirmed Spurs goalkeeper Robinson would retain the number one jersey despite his recent mistakes in the matches against Croatia and Germany.

"Paul Robinson will be in goal," he said. "That was a decision I made two or three days after the game on reflection and on the reaction of Paul Robinson over the last few games and especially this week in training.

"It was just as I expected it to be, very professional this week. He has done very, very well. He has always had my trust and confidence and I'm sticking with him."

McClaren is confident his strikers are in good form but emphasised they would have to rely on good support from midfield.

"All the strikers have done well," McClaren told Sky Sports News.

"The biggest boost we have got is that Michael Owen is fit because he's a big player for us.

"But the main thing is, who is going to supply, get the ball into the key areas where Michael works."

McClaren added: "The big games are when we have to deliver and generally when it comes to the big games, the big games in qualifying, the players have delivered."