STUART Ripley's ambitions of joining England's World Cup crusade to Italy in a fortnight's time will be decided at noon on Monday when Glenn Hoddle announces his squad.

But hopes of a spectacular gamble on the Blackburn Rovers winger's fitness seem to be fading as Ewood boss Roy Hodgson revealed that the earliest Ripley could return to action with his club would be next Saturday at Wimbledon.

The hamstring Ripley damaged on international duty will keep him out of tomorrow's home game against Coventry and also the Coca-Cola Cup return at Preston on Tuesday.

So it would be a remarkable decision by Hoddle to include him in his squad without having played since he limped off the field at Wembley against Moldova last month.

And that will probably solve any dilemma Hodgson might have had about when to bring him back into the Rovers side.

"We can't accelerate his comeback, he can only come back when he's fit," said the Rovers boss.

"He hopes to be fit for Wimbledon and that situation hasn't really changed.

"All I am saying is that if he is not going to feature in Hoddle's squad we will probably not take a chance on him at Wimbledon, even if he's fit. "We'll know (when the squad is announced) if we need to take a chance on him or not.

"The chances are that if the team is still going well then I won't take the risk and we'll keep him back a couple of weeks and really make sure he is fit for Southampton."

Two other Rovers players, however, could well have thoughts of England at the back of their minds when they face Coventry tomorrow.

Chris Sutton will be aiming to maintain his remarkable goal-a-game record and, if he does, Hoddle would find it hard to ignore - again - a striker with a 10 out of 10 record.

The England coach saw both Sutton and Tim Flowers shine against Spurs last weekend and the keeper must have a chance of being recalled.

Meanwhile, Hodgson is more concerned with beating Coventry, whether it's another Sky TV goals bonanza or not.

"Three points are very important. We'll take 1-0, but to win 1-0 sometimes you have to create a lot of goal chances, because not every one goes in," he said. "I have to say that we have taken a very high percentage of the chances we have created this year but I have always been aware that can't continue ad infinitum."

Rovers look set to choose from: Flowers, Valery, Hendry, Henchoz, Kenna, Gallacher, Sherwood, Flitcroft, Wilcox, Sutton, Dahlin, McKinlay, Bohinen, T Pedersen, Duff, Croft, Fettis.

Tickets will be on sale until kick-off at 4pm.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.