International, Wembley: England v Mexico****Date: Monday, 24 May Kick-off: 2000 BSTCoverage: Live commentary from 1930 BST on BBC Radio 5 live and BBC Sport website; live text commentary on BBC Sport website and mobiles; also live on ITV 1
**England manager Fabio Capello says he is reasonably happy with the state of the Wembley pitch ahead of Monday’s World Cup warm-up match against Mexico.**There had been a fear Capello would not risk his best players on a surface that has been widely criticised.
Chelsea captain John Terry claimed the pitch “ruined” last weekend’s FA Cup final against Portsmouth.
But Capello said: “The pitch for the FA Cup final was not perfect but I was happy because the players didn’t slip.”
The 63-year-old Italian felt it was a huge improvement on the pitch that was used for the FA Cup semi-finals, however he remained coy on who would play in England’s last friendly on home soil ahead of next month’s World Cup finals in South Africa.
Capello has already confirmed that Manchester City keeper Joe Hart, who has impressed during a season-long loan at Birmingham, will win his second England cap - he is likely to get his chance as a second-half substitute for West Ham’s Robert Green.
Five other substitutes are allowed during the game and Capello is expected to test the fitness of centre-backs Rio Ferdinand and Ledley King, while striker Wayne Rooney has recovered from a groin injury.
“Rooney always wants to play,” added Capello.
"If I tell him no he says “I want to play”, “I want to train”, “Why do you substitute me?”, “I want to score”.
"It is good because he is positive to be around and he is an example to the other players.
"The most important thing is that the players don’t slip like they did in the Tottenham-Portsmouth FA Cup semi-final. That was terrible.
"The people at Wembley are working hard but at the end of the season there are lots of play-offs and various finals.
“We once had seven games in a month at the San Siro and the grass was terrible. It needs time to grow.”
England’s 30-man squad have spent the last week training at altitude in Austria and will return to the alpine nation after playing Mexico for one more warm-up game against Japan.
The squad will then fly back to England where it will be trimmed to 23 on 1 June before heading out to South Africa.This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
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