Capello’s mind made up on World Cup squad

FABIO CAPELLO has confirmed he knows the names of the players who will carry England’s World Cup hopes in South Africa – and they are the same ones he had in mind when he arrived in Austria a fortnight ago.

Capello will not phone the unlucky seven to be axed until this morning, and has no intention of giving any clues publicly before then.

But, providing the medical update on Gareth Barry confirms the Manchester City midfielder will have recovered from his ankle injury by the time England start training again after their Group C opener against the United States on June 12, Capello’s mind is made up.

“I know the 22 players who are in mind. They are the same 22 that I decided last week. Nothing has changed,” he said. “We have to wait for Gareth Barry. We will decide on him after we have had the final check to see how long it will be before he can train with us.

“We have to know everything about this situation but I am not disappointed my mind is still the same.”

Although Capello is keeping the exact make-up of his squad secret, there are a couple of certainties. Neither Michael Dawson nor Scott Parker had played a single minute for Capello during the Italian’s two-and-a-half-year reign as England coach prior to the two-week Austrian training camp. And as they still have not been involved, they can book their summer holidays with a large degree of confidence.

Neither Tom Huddlestone nor Darren Bent took the chances afforded to them by a starting berth against Japan yesterday and were replaced at half-time, so they too are likely to miss out.

Stephen Warnock is highly unlikely to displace Leighton Baines as second choice at left-back, which leaves Adam Johnson, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Joe Cole scrapping over the remaining spot.

And, listening to Capello, Cole’s second-half cameo, when he shone more than Wright-Phillips, might have done the job.

“I know Joe Cole very well,” said the Italian. “He is in a good moment. He is fresh because he did not play a lot of games. Joe Cole is good. He played very well in the second half.”

Capello will hold talks with new Club England chairman David Richards today which are expected to conclude in confirmation he will remain as England coach until after Euro 2012.

Capello had reached a verbal agreement with Lord Triesman before the former Football Association chairman was forced to resign, 24 hours before England headed to Irdning at the start of their training camp.

Inter Milan president Massimo Moratti has exploited the uncertainty created by Lord Triesman’s departure to announce that Capello is top of his own hit-list to replace now-departed treble-winning coach Jose Mourinho.

With an annual salary of £9million – 50% more than Capello gets from the FA – being mentioned, talk has increasingly surrounded the 63-year-old, who in fairness has never given any indication of a desire to leave the England job halfway through his four-year contract.

Capello left Graz to see his mother in Italy immediately after yesterday’s unimpressive 2-1 win over Japan, when England needed a brace of own goals to avoid defeat.

England started sloppily and were punished after six minutes when Marcus Tulio Tanaka met Yasuhito Endo’s corner and crashed the ball past David James.

Frank Lampard had a penalty saved before England levelled when Tanaka headed Joe Cole’s cross in his own net.

And England stole the win when Yuji Nakazawa turned Ashley Cole’s ball in.

England: James (Hart, 46), Johnson (Carragher, 46), A Cole, Huddlestone (Gerrard, 46), Ferdinand, Terry, Walcott (Wright-Phillips, 46), Lampard, Bent (J Cole, 46), Rooney, Lennon (Heskey, 77).

Japan: Kawashima, Nakazawa, Tanaka, Nagatomo, Konno, Endo (Tamada, 86), Hasebe, Yujki, Honda, Okubu (Matsui, 72), Okazaki (Morimoto, 65).

Referee: Rene Eisner.