Back injury leads to Bent withdrawing from England squad
Published:Darren Bent is the third player to withdraw from England’s squad for the friendly with Hungary at Wembley after failing to recover from a back problem.
The Sunderland striker was among the favourites to be the first goalscorer in England’s only warm up before they host Bulgaria in their opening qualification clash for Euro 2012, but now misses out.
He also remains a doubt for Sunderland’s first Premier League outing of the season against Birmingham after undergoing a medical assessment at the England hotel.
Fabio Capello now only has 20 players to choose from following the decisions of Paul Robinson and Wes Brown to announce their retirements from England duty and he may take the chance to breed some young and inexperienced blood into the international arena.
Carlton Cole and Bobby Zamora are vying to partner Wayne Rooney in attack and are both 6/1 to open the scoring, while Arsenal’s Jack Wilshere is 5/2 to score at any time should Capello decide to hand him his full England debut.
Adam Johnson and James Milner could soon be teammates at Manchester City and are pushing for starting berths, with both available at 3/1 to score their first England goals in the 90 minutes.
Meanwhile, Brown’s decision to leave the England fold will not help their ropey defence, as no clean sheets have been kept in the last six international friendlies.
Tamas Priskin and Zoltan Gera may be Hungarian names most familiar with English supporters due to their appearances in the Premier League and they are 4/1 and 9/2 respectively to continue this run and score at any time within the 90 minutes.
England have also failed to be ahead at half-time in three of their last four friendlies, with a draw at the interval and the home side to win at full time available at 7/2.
England are 11/10 to beat Hungary with a minimum of three goals being scored in the match. See the range of Quatro bets available.
