England line up Egypt friendly

It has been announced that a friendly match versus Egypt will be England's first match of 2010. The match will be played on 3 March at Wembley and it will be Egypt's first trip to England. It will only the third match in history between these two. In 1986 the Three Lions won easily 4-0 in Cairo, but only a single goal separated the two at the 1990 World Cup in Italy, with England winning 1-0.

The match is seen as a perfect opportunity for England to test their skills and tactics versus a side similar to their group C opponents Algeria. Algeria of course pipped Egypt for a spot in the 2010 World Cup finals in dramatic style with a 1-0 victory in a winner takes all match, after the sides finished level on every accounts in their qualifying group.

Meanwhile, a lot of England's stars will be sweating for their place in the finals squad. Manager Fabio Capello has said before that he will only takes fully fit players to South Africa, but a number of potentially key players are currently struggling with fitness.

Owen Hargreaves, who could fit into the England line-up to let Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard loose and attack, has been out of action for 15 months now. But the 26-year old has been nearing a comeback and Capello has offered him some hope of regaining his place. "I spoke to him two months ago, I met him in Manchester and he was just ready to start training. But now he is not fit. He has six months to recover his good form but he needs to play. I will choose players that will be fit in May, the players that play all the games", has the Italian recently said.

Another Manchester United player, who hopes to be part of England's squad in South Africa, is Rio Ferdinand. The laid back central defender, who's been ever present in the first IX for nearly a decade now, has been struggling with back spasms and different niggling injuries for a couple of years now, and it's limited the player to only 7 appearances this season. The man himself is very confident, saying: "I'm confident I'll be fit. There's no question I'll be ready for next summer. The treatment on my injury is going well. It's been quite slowly slowly but we're getting there. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel". But you have to wonder in what condition will he be come May and June.

Then of course, there's Michael Owen. The man would no doubt be useful for England, and has impressed recently, but his playing time, or the lack of it, at Manchester United could see him miss out. "I saw the last game he played, on television, and he scored three goals in the Champions League but the next game he did not play. For this reason, I ask myself why? Why Wayne Rooney plays always and Owen not?", asks Fabio Capello.

So a lot of questions over a number of important players' heads, but only a few answers. And will Capello's strict policy of definitely not selecting a player when he's not fit in time, really be the only correct answer? Only time will tell.