England duo join injured list

ENGLAND pair Steven Taylor and Danny Welbeck have been ruled out today, adding to manager Stuart Pearce’s selection woes.

Defender Taylor, who would have captained the Young Lions in Sweden, is out with an achilles problem, while 18 year-old Manchester United striker Welbeck has a knee injury.

The pair are the latest names to be added to a growing list of absentees for England this summer, which so far includes Middlesbrough’s David Wheater, Blackburn’s Matt Derbyshire and Spurs trio Tom Huddlestone, Jamie O’Hara and Aaron Lennon.

Welbeck will not be celebrating scoring for England this summer.

The final deadline on squad announcements is tomorrow, so Pearce must act quickly to call-up two new names ahead of England’s training camp in Spain this week.

Wolverhampton Wanderers duo Richard Stearman and Sylvan Ebanks-Blake are likely to be in the manager’s thoughts, having both enjoyed excellent seasons in Wolves’ Championship winning campaign.

Meanwhile, England’s most-capped under-21 international James Milner has received a call-up for the senior team, after Michael Carrick was forced to withdraw from Fabio Capello’s squad for the upcoming World Cup qualifiers against Kazakhstan and Andorra.

Milner has played 42 times for his country at under-21 level but has never been capped as a full international. The Aston Villa midfielder joins Arsenal’s Theo Walcott in both squads - something unlikely to please their respective club managers Martin O’Neill and Arsene Wenger, with their men facing a busy summer of international action.