The West Ham midfielder was sent home on Wednesday morning after Kieron Dyer won his fitness battle, but is now set for a flight back to the far east to meet up with Sven's men after Danny Murphy was diagnosed with a fractured metatarsal bone, ending the Liverpool man's World Cup dream.

Sven phoned Sinclair in the early hours and left a message breaking the news. Sinclair will now fly out to Japan later tonight to meet up with the team when they arrive at their Awaji island base.

Eriksson feels he would have no problems adjusting to the time difference in Japan again and could figure in Sunday's friendly with Cameroon. Eriksson said:

"I left a message for him because it was too early. He got the message and he will take a plane tonight. I'm not sure if he will arrive before or after us in Japan.

"He wanted to go home before and I can understand him. To be waiting for one of your friends to drop out cannot be very nice, you are hoping for someone getting injured.

"But he is coming back and is very happy. He has been in England such a short time he is used to Korean time still."

Eriksson also confirmed that two of the under 21's have been placed on standby following their impressive displays in the UEFA Championships this week. Leed's striker Alan Smith and Blackburn's David Dunn will be in line for a call up, should further bad luck strike the squad.

"I spoke to David Platt and he said Alan Smith was one of the best in the three games they played, he played up front and on the right and left of midfield and did very well.

"They are not going on holiday until June 2 and this is very helpful for us of course." 

Eriksson did have some positive news on the injury front, adding: "Nicky Butt will do everything with us tomorrow, he had a good session today with tackles and so on. Beckham will not play football but his progress is very good. The same goes for Kieron Dyer."

With their final warm-up game against Cameroon only two days away Sven has been forced to change his plans and will now not play his strongest XI, though he did confirm Michael Owen is likely to captain the side once again.

"I remember some weeks ago, one of you asked me `are we going to play best team against Cameroon?' And I said yes. But today I say no, I can't, it's impossible.

"We are going to let more or less everyone play as we did in all the friendly games. At this point that is the only way to do it.

"It is one week before (the World Cup) and it is good to have the game even if we can't have the team that might play against Sweden.

And when asked if Owen will retain the captaincy for the friendly, Eriksson said: "I have been thinking about Murphy and Sinclair in the last 24 hours but he might be the captain. Yes, I think so."

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