French coach Jacques Santini has said that he is unsure whether Desailly, who has over 100 caps for Les Bleus, will recover in time from a knee injury which has kept him out of France's last two friendly matches.

"Nobody can take anything for granted," Santini said. "We will pick the players in the best shape on the day.

"But Marcel is still our captain and Zinedine Zidane will wear the armband if Desailly is not playing."

Should Desailly not recover in time, the most obvious option for Santini would be to pair Mikael Silvestre alongside Lilian Thuram in central defence.

"There is not a player who can say for sure today that he is going to play against England on Sunday," Santini added.

The player himself was still confident that he could make it in time for Sunday's match which could go a long way to deciding the eventual outcome of Group B.

"My knee is still aching but it's getting better every day," he said.

"If he [Santini] picked me in the squad there must be a good reason for it."