Mac's drop-outs make it a farce

Arsenal's manager took a stroll across London Colney's perfectly manicured pitches to watch England train and, although he had a pleasant chat with David Beckham, it would have been enough to put him off international football for good.

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It was a shambles. After four more withdrawals through injury, Steve McClaren is somehow expected to prepare a team for a friendly against Germany at a sold-out Wembley tomorrow night with only 12 outfield players and a former England captain who only appeared to be jogging around for the cameras.

'I'm surprised to even see him out here,' said one well-informed observer who expected Beckham to go straight to the indoor pitch with the other 'rested' players.

Beckham's photo-shoot aside, it leaves McClaren with one training session and a fairly big selection headache. Now that Darren Bent is unavailable with a thigh injury he apparently suffered during Tottenham's win over Derby on Saturday, who does he select alongside Michael Owen in attack?

Jermain Defoe and Andy Johnson are probably too similar, while Alan Smith was desperate against Brazil in June and Peter Crouch is suspended for next month' s European Championship qualifier against Israel. Perhaps Joe Cole would offer the best solution. He certainly looked sharp in yesterday's seven-a-side.

For Bent, this week represented a wonderful opportunity to impress in the wake of his £ 16.5million move to White Hart Lane. He has started only once for England's senior team - against Uruguay shortly before the World Cup - but a good performance against the Germans and he might well have secured his place for next month's qualifiers in the absence of the injured Wayne Rooney.

As it is, McClaren has to come up with a solution today. Not only that, he also has to contend with the disruption that has been caused by the injuries to Steven Gerrard and Owen Hargreaves.

Gerrard did not even travel to London yesterday after FA doctors took a look at the original scans of his fractured toe. The same doctors agreed that Hargreaves, who has a knee problem, and Portsmouth's Sol Campbell (thigh) could go home.

It means Frank Lampard will probably be partnered by Michael Carrick in central midfield, with Beckham on one flank and Stewart Downing on the other - or possibly Kieron Dyer - if McClaren does choose to go with Cole up front.

Only in defence does everything appear fairly stable. Micah Richards, while outstanding at centre half for Manchester City this season, will almost certainly start to the right of Rio Ferdinand and John Terry, while Ashley Cole will occupy his usual role on the left.

McClaren can at least take heart from the form of Richards, who at 19 is fast becoming one of the most exciting young players in the English game.

'Micah is outstanding,' said his Manchester City club captain Richard Dunne after playing alongside Richards in Sunday's 1-0 derby win over Manchester United. ' He gets better every game. Whoever comes up against him, whatever test he is set, he just blows them away.

'He is as good a centre half as England have. There is no limit on him. In the last couple of years, he has got his experience as a right back. Now he is playing centre half, which is his favourite position. He has shown in the last three games he has pace and power, everything that you need. Nobody can run past him or beat him in the air.'

As Dunne recognises, retaining the services of Richards is now one of the biggest challenges facing Sven Goran Eriksson and City.

'Hopefully, we can match his ambitions in the future,' said Dunne. 'We've got off to a decent start. If we can keep improving and Micah can be part of that, it would be brilliant for the club.

'The hope is that we can keep him. For Micah to improve we need to be pushing on and playing European football. I'm sure that's what he wants. If we can provide that for him it would be brilliant because his best years are definitely in front of him.'