The FA medical staff will have to convince UEFA that Frank Lampard's thigh strain was not a pre-existing condition, if the new England manager is to be given dispensation to replace the injured Chelsea man with Jordan Henderson in his Euro 2012 squad.
The Football Association has already notified Liverpool and Henderson that the player is likely to be called up when Lampard goes for a scan later today for a strain that he sustained towards the end of yesterday's session. However, because all 16 teams in Euro 2012 had to submit their 23-man squads to UEFA by Tuesday, replacements can only be called up if it can be proved that the injury took place after the deadline.
The FA is confident that UEFA will allow it to make the change on the basis of evidence from today's scan. Lampard has not been named in any of the previous medical bulletins and the governing body called him up in good faith believing him to be fully fit. The Uefa rule that a player with a pre-existing condition cannot be replaced if he is deemed unfit after the squad deadline is in place in order to prevent nations hedging their bets on injured players and then changing them at the last minute.
Hodgson has already lost Gareth Barry to injury - as well as goalkeeper John Ruddy - and Scott Parker has gone into the tournament with a troublesome Achilles problem. Should he struggle for fitness too then the England manager would be left with just Steven Gerrard as his experienced central midfielder. Hodgson has been playing Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain in central midfield in training over the last few days.
Hodgson has made a point of building a more relaxed atmosphere around the training camp over the last week which has made quite an impression on the players, who had grown accustomed to Fabio Capello's much stricter regime.
The Football Association has already notified Liverpool and Henderson that the player is likely to be called up when Lampard goes for a scan later today for a strain that he sustained towards the end of yesterday's session. However, because all 16 teams in Euro 2012 had to submit their 23-man squads to UEFA by Tuesday, replacements can only be called up if it can be proved that the injury took place after the deadline.
The FA is confident that UEFA will allow it to make the change on the basis of evidence from today's scan. Lampard has not been named in any of the previous medical bulletins and the governing body called him up in good faith believing him to be fully fit. The Uefa rule that a player with a pre-existing condition cannot be replaced if he is deemed unfit after the squad deadline is in place in order to prevent nations hedging their bets on injured players and then changing them at the last minute.
Hodgson has already lost Gareth Barry to injury - as well as goalkeeper John Ruddy - and Scott Parker has gone into the tournament with a troublesome Achilles problem. Should he struggle for fitness too then the England manager would be left with just Steven Gerrard as his experienced central midfielder. Hodgson has been playing Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain in central midfield in training over the last few days.
Hodgson has made a point of building a more relaxed atmosphere around the training camp over the last week which has made quite an impression on the players, who had grown accustomed to Fabio Capello's much stricter regime.
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