Gerrard, Ferdinand back in reckoning
Gerrard and Ferdinand were both ruled out of Saturday night's qualifier in Macedonia, which England won 2-1, with no further injury problems arising out of the game. Goals from Wayne Rooney and a David Beckham penalty won the game for England after Histov had put Macedonia ahead in the first-half.
The England medical staff are now hopeful that both players will be available for selection for the match against Liechtenstein at Old Trafford on Wednesday night. Both have responded to treatment and, while PaulScholes is ruled out with a hernia problem, Sven-Goran Eriksson will hope to have Gerrard and Ferdinand available.
Meanwhile, coach Erikkson has delivered a stark warning to England fans that they could risk their lives by travelling to Turkey for next month's make-or-break Euro 2004 qualifier.
The FA have rejected their ticket allocation following the history of ugly scenes surrounding games between the countries, including the killing of two Leeds fans in Istanbul three years ago.
However, about 250 England fans bought black market tickets for Saturday night's game in Macedonia, when their unofficial presence was applauded by the England players, led by captain David Beckham.
The FA are set to remind the England players not to repeat such actions in Turkey next month, but their prime concern is to stop fans travelling there in the first place. They are, therefore, seeking an urgent clarification from the Turkish football federation after weekend reports claimed that they are prepared to sell tickets direct to thousands of England fans.
Haluk Ulusoy, the president of the Turkish federation, was quoted as effectively inviting England fans to travel to Istanbul for the match. "Even if the English FA are not going to sell tickets and not going to bring fans over to Istanbul, we will do it for them. If there are fans who want to watch this game, they can come and get tickets from us. We will sell as many tickets to them as they want 1,000, 2,000 or even 3,000. We can also give VIP seats out if they want them."
Given that many England fans will have read this article, the FA are keen to check whether the position of the Turkish FA has changed that radically from their previously united approach. FA head of media Adrian Bevington said: "We will be discussing this with the Turkish federation over the next 24 hours to establish what their view is with regard to this article.
"We would like to strongly reaffirm the position of ourselves, the Government and the police that no fans should travel to Turkey."
The FA adopted a similarly unequivocal stance towards Saturday's qualifier in Macedonia, only for tickets to be available on the black market and a few hundred fans to travel out there.
The FA will, meanwhile, consider their response to instances of racial abuse of players in Skopje, as well as the burning of the England flag in one section of the home crowd.
Phil Neville revealed: "there were a couple of chants towards Ashley Cole and Sol Campbell".
Campbell played down the depressing sound of monkey taunts from a handful of fans, although he did reveal that "a couple of players got a bit of verbals from the terraces".
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