England, June 06: Trevor Sinclair has been ruled out of England's Euro 2004 qualifier against Slovakia next Wednesday after failing to recover from a dead leg. The West Ham winger suffered the injury at England's La Manga training camp last week, forcing him to miss Tuesday's 2-1 friendly win over Serbia and Montenegro. And he has been released from Sven-Goran Eriksson's squad after intense treatment failed to cure the problem. Eriksson has been boosted, however, by the news that Matthew Upson is expected to return to training this weekend. Upson sustained a dead leg against Serbia and Montenegro but should be fit for the Group Seven meeting with Slovakia at Middlesbrough's Riverside Stadium. Eriksson had been left with just three fit centre-halves after losing Rio Ferdinand to a knee injury following last month's win over South Africa. Upson performed competently on his first international start this week and is expected to hold off the challenge of John Terry to partner Gareth Southgate at the heart of England's defence. "Matthew has been receiving treatment over the last two days since picking up a dead leg in the match against Serbia and Montenegro", the FA's head of media relations Adrian Bevington told the FA's website. "Physio Gary Lewin expects him to be able to train with the squad on Saturday and, if this is not the case, definitely by Sunday". "Unfortunately, Trevor Sinclair will not rejoin the squad tomorrow as he is still a few days away from recovery. "Having not trained since picking up his dead leg in La Manga, he would not be fit until the early part of next week so Wednesday's match comes just too early for him". Victory for Slovakia against Turkey in Bratislava on Saturday would make England firm favourites to qualify for next summer's Euro 2004 finals in Portugal.

Bureau Report