McClaren rocked as Terry pulls out

THREE hours after delivering a Churchillian battle speech, England coach Steve McClaren was forced into a damage limitation exercise after skipper John Terry was all but ruled out of tonight’s crucial European Championship qualifier with Russia.

But the words, delivered in the shadow of Red Square and the Kremlin — where so many intriguing plots have been played out over the years — were undermined almost immediately as news of Terry’s injury filtered out.

“John Terry is almost certainly ruled out of [tonight’s] match,” said McClaren in a statement issued from the Luzhniki Stadium.

“His knee locked towards the end of training and he could not complete the session.”

While the decision to replace Terry with Sol Campbell, the skipper’s deputy during Saturday’s 3-0 win over Estonia at Wembley is easy enough, the damage to morale by the unwanted development could run far deeper.

McClaren had expected to be without Terry from the moment he initially injured his knee on Wednesday, feeling 24 hours later the Chelsea man “had no chance”.

However, the problem eased sufficiently over the weekend for Terry to convince McClaren he could make the trip and the England coach confirmed in his pre-injury briefing the 27-year-old would play provided he suffered no further reaction.

The note of caution has proved painfully prophetic, leaving Terry to contemplate the possibility of an operation in what has been a bad week for Chelsea on the England front given Ashley Cole will miss tonight’s encounter after being stretchered off against Estonia at Wembley with a nasty-looking ankle injury.

It means Sol Campbell will now be required to step in and do something that has proved beyond the veteran Portsmouth defender since January, namely play two full games in the space of five days.

But it does not do is diminish in any way the requirements McClaren laid out for his team as they bid to build on the feelgood factor generated by their rugby union counterparts’ recent World Cup heroics in France.

“We will have to be organised, we will have to be disciplined and we will have to be in control individually and collectively,” McClaren said.

“And the key thing is the inspiration, the commitment, the attitude and the leadership.

“We need one of the performances we saw at the weekend from the rugby team, the kind of performance we have seen from many an England football team in recent years; Istanbul and Rome come to mind.

“We need heroes out. The players know the importance. They know what is required. They have to deliver that.”

While victory would take England through, a draw would leave Russia in the unenviable position of needing to beat Israel in Tel Aviv and then hope Croatia can defeat McClaren’s side at Wembley on the same night as they dispose on Andorra on home soil in their final game.

“Four or five games ago, so many people doubted we would be in this position,” he observed.

“But I always said the last five games would be critical.”