Tottenham winger Aaron Lennon has been forced to drop out of Fabio Capello’s squad for England’s Euro 2012 qualifier against Montenegro on Tuesday because of a sore back.
The former Leeds United player has returned to White Hart Lane for treatment and has been replaced in the England squad by Aston Villa’s Stewart Downing.
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Lennon is the second player to pull out of the squad in the last 24 hours after Everton defender Phil Jagielka picked up a hamstring injury on Friday and was replaced by Bolton Wanderers’ Gary Cahill.
Jagielka missed a training game at Arsenal’s London Colney complex on Friday morning after experiencing some tightness in his hamstring during the session beforehand. He then underwent a scan before being ruled out of the match.
Jagielka impressed in last month’s victories over Bulgaria and Switzerland but his absence now means that Capello will almost certainly start with Rio Ferdinand and John Terry in central defence.
Meanwhile, Gareth Barry has joined up with the squad after being given additional time at home due to personal reasons.
Newcastle United striker Andy Carroll has pledged his long-term future to Chris Hughton’s team by signing a new five-year contract with the club.
The 21-year-old, who has scored 26 times in 78 appearances for the Magpies, will now remain at St James’ Park outfit until the end of the 2014-15 campaign.
Meanwhile, the Premier League has given New England Sports Ventures (NESV) the go-ahead to continue their proposed takeover of Liverpool.
NESV, which owns the Boston Red Sox baseball team, has met the Premier League’s requirements for team ownership.
However, the £300million takeover is still to be finalised and will be settled in the High Court on Tuesday after the Reds’ current co-owners, Tom Hicks and George Gillett Jr, said they thought the bid “dramatically undervalued” the club.
They are challenging the authority of Liverpool’s three other board members to go through with the sale.
Finally, Federico Macheda’s agent has played down talk linking the Manchester United teenager with a move to Juventus.
The 19-year-old striker joined United from Lazio in 2008 and has gone on to score three times in 20 appearances for Sir Alex Ferguson’s side but was recently said to be keen to return to Italy.
