World

Cup

agony

MIDFIELD maestro David Dunn today conceded his World Cup dreams are over after being struck down by another crushing injury blow.

Ewood ace Dunn felt he had an outside chance of making Sven Goran Eriksson's squad for tomorrow night's friendly with Italy at Elland Road.

But a hip injury sustained in Rovers' recent 2-1 win over Ipswich has since shattered those hopes.

And now the 22-year-old star believes it would take something 'exceptional' for him to muscle his way into Eriksson's World Cup plans before England jet out to Japan and South Korea in the summer.

"I must admit I thought I might have had a little chance for this one, just so he could have a look at me," said Dunn.

"But every time a squad gets announced, I seem to get injured which is very frustrating.

"So I think my chance has probably gone now.

"Let's put this way, I'd have to do extremely well between now and the end of the season to force my way into the squad from here.

"Obviously, that's disappointing but I'm still young and I just hope there'll be plenty of other opportunities in the future."

Eriksson fuelled talk of a possible call-up for Dunn after hinting the Rovers star was among a number of young players under consideration in the build-up to this summer's finals.

However, an injury sustained in Rovers' 2-1 defeat at Manchester United in January dashed his hopes of appearing in England's friendly with Holland.

And the curse has now struck again after his latest problem has prevented him from training properly over the last 10 days.

"It's my hip. I took a knock on it against Ipswich and had to come off," said Dunn, whose injury problems also ruled him out of the Under 21s game at Bradford tonight.

"Then I had an injection ahead of the Leeds game but it didn't do anything for me.

"So I only did a bit of training whilst we were out in Dubai and that's been about it.

"But I'm hoping to step things up later this week so I've still got a chance of being back for our game against Leicester on Saturday."

Despite his injury problems, Dunn still felt the trip to Dubai was a fruitful exercise as Rovers returned to England last night.

Graeme Souness and his squad still trained on a daily basis whilst they were based in the Middle East and Dunn believes the whole break has helped to recharge the batteries, as well as strengthening team spirit.

"It's about getting all the lads together and working on team spirit and I think this trip has done us the world of good.

TURN TO PAGE 43

ROVERS: From back page

"It was a good time to get away and I think it's helped some of the new lads like Yordi and Hakan Unsal to settle in."

Whilst the squad were away, stories also circulated suggesting Andy Cole was ready to walk out on the club in the summer following a series of heated bust-ups with his team-mates.

But Dunn has joined skipper Garry Flitcroft in condemning the reports and insists, if anything, the whole situation has simply brought the squad even closer together.

"Everyone's had some kind of story like that written about them in the past so the lads all knew it was rubbish because they know what the national Press can be like.

"So, if anything, the events of the last week or so have only brought us closer together.

"I think Andy was disappointed more than upset by the stories and he just said to me 'the Press seem to know more than I do.'"

Rovers officials today urged fans to help boost the club's survival bid by turning out en masse for Monday's Bank Holiday clash with Southampton at Ewood (kick off 8pm).

So far tickets are going well for the vital six-pointer with a crowd of 25,000-plus expected for the game.

But club officials are hoping that figure may soar towards the 30,000 mark given the fact that tickets are on sale at a special rate of £10 for adults and £5 for juniors and senior citizens.

"Our form hasn't been too bad of late and we need as much support as possible for what is a big game for the club," said chief executive John Williams.

MANCHESTER CITY striker Shaun Wright-Phillips takes another step towards emulating his famous father tonight when he begins his international career with England Under-21s against Italy at Valley Parade.

Wright-Phillips is set to mark his squad debut with a starting role after impressing boss David Platt with his consistency for Manchester City this season.

The lightning-fast 20-year-old said his superstar dad Ian was beside himself when told the news about his England call-up.

"He sounded very happy. He didn't really say too much. He was basically just shouting down the telephone," said Wright-Phillips.

Such has been Wright-Phillips' form in Manchester City's march back towards the Premiership this season that he has gatecrashed Platt's squad plans for May's European Championship finals in Switzerland.

For his part, Wright-Phillips has cancelled a family holiday scheduled for Spain at the same time.

"My opinion was that a player would have to do something exceptional to come into the reckoning for a place in the European Championship squad," said Platt.

MISSING OUT: Injury has once again forced David Dunn out of England manager's Sven-Goran Eriksson's plans for the friendly international against Italy