PAUL Gascoigne's absence will give England a tough task in their World Cup opener against Tunisia on Monday.
That's the verdict of his former Newcastle, Spurs and England team-mate Chris Waddle.
The ex-Burnley boss has vast experience of conditions in France having spent three success laden seasons with Marseille.
And with England due to launch their World Cup challenge on the same Marseille pitch that witnessed Waddle at the height of his powers he is well qualified to voice his concerns.
"I would have taken Gascoigne, definitely," insisted Waddle.
"England are a hard-working side but one problem is that we don't seem to be able to keep the ball very well. It has been hot in Bordeaux and being in Marseille will be even hotter. It will be very difficult against Tunisia because of the heat and you have got to keep the ball.
"I watched England in the tournament in Morocco and recently at Wembley and they did find it hard to keep the ball. That's where Gascoigne comes in because he keeps the ball so well."
With England kicking off their Group G opener at 1.30pm on Monday they will have to face the full heat of the day. That would have raised even greater concern over Gascoigne who was controverially axed from his final 22 by coach Glenn Hoddle because of his lack of fitness.
But Waddle, who spent time in Gascoigne's company and appeared on one television show with him prior to the pre-World Cup tournament in North Africa, believes it would have been alright on the night for the turbulent Middlesbrough midfielder as he trained "twice a day" to build up his fitness.
Without Gascoigne, Waddle - speaking to me from France where he is covering the tournament for BBC television - feels England will look even more to their other Geordie boy to make significant progress.
But unlike at Newcastle, Waddle stressed that the service must be right for Alan Shearer to score the goals to take England to the later stages of the competition.
He added: "There are a lot of decent, hard-working good players but we need to get the ball wide and get crosses in for Alan Shearer who will put them away."
Waddle's view on Gascoigne is shared by USA goalkeeper Kasey Keller who believes England won't win the World Cup without him. The Leicester City star said that, although he understood Hoddle's decision to drop Gascoigne, it had left England too short of creativity in midfield to contemplate going beyond the quarter-finals.
"A fit Gascoigne would have definitely helped England, no doubt about it," said Keller at the US World Cup base in France's Beaujolais region. "If you look at the squad you have to say where is that guy who can unlock defences and put the Shearers, the Sheringhams and the Owens in.
"Someone like Gascoigne can skate past two people and put that great ball in.
"I don't think a David Batty or a Paul Ince can play that role. They can be very important for England but not in that Gascoigne role."
And picking up further on Waddle's theme, Keller, who also starts his cup campaign on Monday against the Germans, claimed England would have to rely on their wide players getting behind defences and providing quality crosses that Shearer thrives on.
Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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