King made his tournament debut in the opening match in Group B at Euro 2004 and was one of the major plus points for England in a game that no-one will forget in a hurry.

The Tottenham defender was virtually faultless against the French, but with Terry back in training following a hamstring injury, England Head Coach Eriksson has a dilemma.

He said: "It would be difficult to leave Ledley out after a performance like that but on the other hand there is no reason to keep John Terry out if he is fit.

"It's a good problem to have. But Ledley will not be that disappointed. He will understand."

Eriksson says he was impressed but not surprised by King's performance in Lisbon on Sunday, and it is clear the Spurs man will be an England player for a long time to come.

Eriksson said: "I have always been impressed by what he did in practice. He's very intelligent because you tell him about something and he does it. The game in Portugal it was absolutely fantastic what he did.

"It was the same against France. I don't remember him making any mistakes at all. It was a good choice to play him."

Eriksson also reassured Michael Owen he won't be dropped for Thursday's game against Switzerland.

Owen was naturally disappointed to be substituted by Eriksson after just over an hour against France on Sunday after working hard for the cause.

But Eriksson says he hasn't even thought about dropping the Liverpool striker and he will start against the Swiss later this week.

He said: "I am going to talk to Michael, of course. I will explain to him the reasons for his substitution. And I will not leave him out next time, definitely not.

"I took both him and Wayne Rooney off because they had worked extremely hard. They were not only doing good movement, but they were helping the rest of the team defend. One tried to go to the central defenders and one went to close to Makelele or Vieira, which we had talked about when we are defending leads.

"At a certain point I felt we needed fresh people who could keep on doing the same work."

Eriksson believes the Owen-Rooney partnership is the one that can guide England to glory at Euro 2004, and they are expected to start the match against Switzerland on Thursday providing both are fit.

He said: "I thought they play very well together. I suppose if you think that one striker should be strong, tall and a good header and one quick, they are not like that.

"Wayne Rooney is strong but not tall and if he has to fight with a big centre-half he will not win much up there. But they have so many other good things and they are doing well. Michael is happy with it, I'm sure and so am I."

Eriksson praised Rooney for his performance against the French.

"Wayne was fantastic. He surprised me a little bit because when we met up for this tournament three weeks ago he didn't look that sharp and fit but on Sunday he was fantastic."

And he also dismissed rumours that he took off Rooney on Sunday because he feared he could lose his temper as the match hotted up.

He said: "We talked about it on the bench because of course when you're tired it's easier to lose patience. But Rooney did very well and I have no worries about how he will react to the defeat.

"Of course he cares about the result but if I know the player I would be very surprised if anything affected him, whatever it is. I just think he will be looking forward to the next game and even the next training session."

Overall Eriksson insists there are no major problems in the camp despite Sunday's result. He called a team meeting on Monday afternoon to give his players a pep talk and expects a good response.

He said: "We talked about the game for only two minutes and then I talked about the future for a lot longer. Technically I have nothing to say other than congratulations for the performance.

"I am very proud of the performance against France and very proud of the players. They did exactly what I asked them to do and if we carry on performing like that I think we will go through and have a very good tournament."