England to miss Campbell in defence

Tottenham pulled star defender Sol Campbell out of the England squad less than two hours after Kevin Keegan named the contenders for his last two Euro 2000 line ups yesterday.

The central defender has been struggling all season with calf problems and the London club were surprised when the England coach included the player in his squad for the home game against Luxembourg and the trip to Poland in September.

Keegan claimed not to know of Campbell's fitness problems yesterday but the player lasted only 24 minutes of the opening game of the season on August 1st and has not figured since in Tottenham's good start to the campaign. Coach George Graham said last night that the player was at least ten days away from full fitness. The defender has alerted AS Roma and Real Madrid with his refusal to discuss a new contract with Tottenham until the end of the season. The highly rated club captain is free to leave the club in 2001 under the Bosman ruling if he fails to agree a new contract with the club.