Lennon fitness worry for England

England boss Fabio Capello will monitor the fitness of Aaron Lennon ahead of the friendly in Qatar against Brazil in three weeks time after the Tottenham winger picked up an injury to his left ankle.

Lennon told the Spurs bench he could not continue for the final 12 minutes of the defeat to Stoke following a challenge by Glenn Whelan, who then scored the winner at White Hart Lane.

Capello started the 22-year-old in the recent World Cup qualifier against Belarus, with Arsenal’s Theo Walcott missing out that time and likely to miss the trip to Doha to face Dunga’s Brazilians with knee ligament damage. The Italian’s other options on the right wing are David Beckham and Shaun Wright-Phillips.

From the side that defeated Belarus at Wembley, Manchester United Wayne Rooney could return at the Khalifa International Stadium and Manchester City defender Joleon Lescott is back from injury.

Jermain Defoe could also return, although he will only have the Barclays Premier League match against Sunderland to impress after getting sent off for a stamp in the recent win over Portsmouth, which upset Spurs boss Harry Redknapp at the time as he had told the striker not to react to provocation.

Capello was at White Hart Lane when Lennon took himself off, despite Redknapp asking him to continue as he had already made three substitutions.

“I was hoping he could stay on but he couldn’t and suddenly we were down to 10 men,” Redknapp said. “We’re not sure what the problem is. He just said he couldn’t carry on and that was that.

“I didn’t give him a nudge – I just said to him we would only have 10 men and could he play on, but he said his ankle was too sore. ”I don’t want to say any more, I don’t want to cause an issue. It’s not about England – he’s got big games coming up for Tottenham.“