Micah could get central role - McClaren

McClaren is without his first-choice partnership - with Rio Ferdinand suspended and John Terry out (knee injury) - for Friday's friendly in Vienna and the potentially crucial Wembley encounter with Croatia five days later.

Despite his relative inexperience, McClaren will not rule 19-year-old Richards out of the position to partner Sol Campbell on age grounds, saying: "I would have no hesitation in playing Micah Richards in central defence. We played him there for one half against Germany and he did well and his performances there for Manchester City have been impressive."

Liverpool's Jamie Carragher, is denied to England by his recent international retirement, so McClaren was at Stamford Bridge on Sunday to see Joleon Lescott hold his own against Didier Drogba.

Having showed plenty of faith in the Everton man by handing him a first start in Russia, albeit at left-back, the 25-year-old is an option.

Wes Brown has more international experience, although all his recent action for Manchester United has been at right-back, where the Longsight-born player has proved himself to be a useful replacement for Gary Neville.

By contrast, while Richards has replaced Neville at full-back for almost his entire nine-cap England career, his club duties are in the centre, where he has earned rave reviews from McClaren's predecessor Sven-Goran Eriksson.

If Richards moved into the centre, either Brown or Phil Neville could deputise at full-back, with Ashley Cole, confirmed as fit but lacking in match practice occupying the left-back slot.

Having arranged the friendly in Austria as part of the build-up to Croatia, McClaren now finds himself in the difficult position of not knowing whether he is preparing a team for the biggest match of his management career or face-saving exercise to accompany the massive let-down of a failure to reach a major championship for the first time since 1994.

McClaren will not know the answer until Saturday night, when Russia hope to have gained a win in Israel that will effectively knock England out.