Capello weighing up captaincy claims

Incumbent John Terry is waiting for the results of his latest scan to see whether he can step up his comeback from a foot injury to play in the friendly, prompting talk of a temporary captaincy for David Beckham to go with his 100th cap, and allow the Chelsea defender to stake his claim along with the other plausible choices Steven Gerrard, Rio Ferdinand and Michael Owen.

"The captaincy is a very important decision," said Capello. "I am still deciding whether to pick a definitive captain or a provisional one. First, I need to know all the candidates well because it is such an important choice."

Although the 61-year-old has spent his first few days at Soho Square getting to know the FA staff, his work began in earnest on Monday when he thrashed out a 2010 World Cup qualifying campaign which will begin against Andorra and meets Capello's stated target of securing two September confrontations with Croatia, the first of which will be in Zagreb.

After a marathon eight-hour meeting in Zagreb, new manager Fabio Capello emerged reasonably happy with a fixture list. Capello will return to Zagreb to face Slaven Bilic's men immediately after the Andorra game on September 10 this year, with the return encounter at Wembley 12 months later.

England will conclude their campaign on home soil against Belarus on October 14, 2009, four days after a trip to Kiev to face Ukraine.

While the arduous eight-hour flight to Kazakhstan will be undertaken in June, not an ideal time from the FA's perspective, a hoped-for evening kick-off should negate the effects of the sweltering heat, while a Wembley clash with Andorra the following Wednesday should not be too taxing for a team showing any ill-effects from the journey.

"We are reasonably pleased with how it worked out," said FA director of football development Sir Trevor Brooking, who accompanied Capello into the meeting. "He wanted Croatia twice in September - he was really relaxed about whether we were home or away.

"It has worked out quite nicely that we have a free Saturday before the home game. He also wanted to start with Andorra."