Steve McClaren faces a club-versus-country dilemma over Steven
Gerrard after the Liverpool midfielder missed training again today
because of his broken toe.
The England boss says everybody associated with the team is
desperate for Gerrard to play in Saturday's vital Euro 2008
qualifier against Israel.
But that view is not shared by Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez,
who has already gone on record stating that he does not want his
club captain to play at Wembley if he risks aggravating the
injury.
McClaren said: All being well, Stevie will be available on
Saturday.
I want him to play, the team do, the fans do and so does the whole
country. We need big players and Stevie is one for us.
We're assessing it day by day.
He's getting better and hopefully by the end of the week we'll
have a better idea.
The midfielder has played only once, in the 1-1 draw against
Chelsea, since breaking a toe against Toulouse in a Champions
League qualifier three weeks ago.
Gerrard and Manchester United's Owen Hargreaves, who has a
tendinitis problem, trained alone in the gym this morning while
John Terry (illness) and Frank Lampard missed the session.
Lampard has now been sent back to Chelsea but McClaren is still
hopeful that his torn thigh muscle will heal in time for him to
face Russia next Wednesday.
He said: Frank joined us last night, we looked at the scans and
have liaised with Chelsea.
He's gone back there for rehab the injury is not as serious as
we first thought, although hopefully we'll assess him on
Saturday.
He may be 50-50 for next week and Chelsea are giving him every
chance of being available for us.
