Hodgson delays decision on Oxlade-Chamberlain

Roy Hodgson will put off making a decision on Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s fitness until the eve of England’s World Cup opener against Italy.

This day week England kick-off their campaign in the inhospitable conditions of Manaus, a thousand miles up the River Amazon.

Hodgson’s men are acclimatising for the expected hot and humid weather with a training camp in Miami, where the England manager this week received his first injury blow of the build-up.

What had initially appeared an innocuous incident in Wednesday’s 2-2 draw with Ecuador resulted in Oxlade-Chamberlain sustaining medial ligament damage in his right knee, which could rule him out for two to three weeks.

“There’s no change,” Hodgson said of the midfielder’s situation ahead of tonight’s final pre-World Cup friendly against Honduras (kick-off 9:45pm).

“He’s been working with the physios the last couple of days and we’ll monitor the situation and keep our fingers crossed that he’ll be able to take part in this World Cup.”

Oxlade-Chamberlain trained alone at Barry University’s training base yesterday, while the other 22 players took to the field alongside standby duo Jon Flanagan and John Stones.

Despite not being like-for-like replacements, the defensive pair look best placed to come in should the Arsenal midfielder fail to make it — not that Hodgson is contemplating that possibility yet.

“[A decision] won’t be before we go to Brazil, it will be at the very, very last moment,” he said.