Injured Scholes misses Eriksson "experiment"

England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson says Manchester United midfielder Paul Scholes will miss the friendly against Italy tomorrow night with a calf strain.

Arsenal defender Ashley Cole will also miss the game with injury but Teddy Sheringham returned to training while Tottenham centre back Sol Campbell will only play one half of the game at Leeds against Giovanni Trapattoni's Italy who will start with Inter top scorer Christian Vieri in attack.

England captain David Beckham may not be fit to play the whole game.

The Swedish coach has complained his preparations for May's finals have been disrupted by the heavy domestic schedule in England:

"There are too many games but you can't do anything about it," Eriksson said.

"The players will be physically and mentally tired at the end of the season.

"It would have been very nice to have played 45 minutes with the team that is in my head for the first World Cup match but that is not possible. We have to wait until we are in Korea for that. There will be some experiments because I do not have all the players available," said Eriksson.

The former Lazio coach says up to a quarter of places in the World Cup finals squad are undecided

"If you take out three goalkeepers you have to pick 20 outfield players."

"It is easy to pick 16 or 17 but 18, 19 and 20 are not easy. I will sleep on it until the last moment.

"I have not decided on the squad at this moment. I have an idea but it will always be a fight for the last places."