LONDON — Gareth Barry has been given an extra 24 hours to prove he has recovered sufficiently from an ankle injury to go to the World Cup with England. The Manchester City midfielder's appointment with a specialist who is due to assess the state of his damaged ligaments has been delayed today, increasing the likelihood that he will be get a green light to travel to South Africa.
England coach Fabio Capello wants Barry to have at least a 50-50 chance of being fit enough to feature in England's opening match, against the United States in Rustenburg on June 12. If the odds are less encouraging, the 29-year-old will be left at home forcing Capello to do without a player who has started 19 of the 22 matches England have played under him.
Aston Villa's James Milner and Manchester United's Michael Carrick are among the possible replacements if Barry does not make it, although Capello has also been looking at the possibility of switching to a three-man centreback system. Gary Taylor-Fletcher, one of Blackpool's scorers in their Championship play-off win over Cardiff on Saturday, has become the latest player to incur an injury attributed to the surface at the national stadium.
"The England players have got to be careful," he warned after suffering an ankle injury on Saturday. "One slip and it could all be over for them." John Terry described the pitch as 'the worst we have played on all year' after the FA Cup final and his call for the Football Association to stop allowing the venue to be used for rock concerts, rugby matches and other money-spinning events has been backed by Rio Ferdinand. "It should be a football stadium," Ferdinand said. "That is what it was built as."
