David Beckham should be fit enough to captain England in Wednesday's World Cup qualifier against Poland, England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson said on Tuesday.
The Real Madrid midfielder has been struggling with a rib injury he picked up in the 2-2 draw against Austria in Vienna, but Eriksson said he was hopeful his captain would pull through.
"He has had a scan and there are no broken things," Swede Eriksson said. "He will train later today and I think he will play tomorrow.
"It is no risk him training today ... if it was a risk our doctors would have kept him in his hotel."
Eriksson said there was no question of Beckham being dropped for the Group Six match despite heavy media criticism of his performance after England blew a 2-0 lead.
"No, I never considered dropping him," he told reporters. "I cannot agree he played badly at all. I can't tell you how many times he switched play for us in that match.
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Eriksson said there were no other injury concerns in his squad but that we would not be naming the side to face Poland until the last minute.
"I have still more than 24 hours to decide the team," he said. "And I will use those 24 hours.
"I am quite sure we will qualify for the World Cup in Germany. I don't agree with those people who are panicking after one drawn match ... one match away, which we drew. There are a lot of games to play still.
"We made some mistakes against Austria and they cost us two points, unfortunately. But the will to put Saturday's result right is great within the squad.
"That the players are panicking is not true -- they are calm and they are confident ... you know, it is good that people expect England always to win.
"There is 90 minutes work to do out there. It is important the players are calm and they do their job and that's it.
"I am very positive we will still qualify."
Striker and Beckham's Real Madrid teammate Michael Owen echoed Eriksson's sentiments.
"Even though we drew the other day, that doesn't make us a bad team overnight," he said.
"Obviously the more points you can rack up early on, the easier it is, but one point from an away match is not the end of the world ... there's positives to take from it."
