Huge challenge awaits Lampard

Frank Lampard will almost certainly be handed the biggest challenge of his international career when England resume their European Championship qualifying campaign in Macedonia on Saturday.

The 25-year-old Chelsea midfield player is the outstanding candidate for a physically demanding role in England's engine room following the withdrawals of Steven Gerrard and Paul Scholes because of injuries.

Gerrard and Scholes have played together in England's last six games and, the fact that all six were victories, has established them along with captain David Beckham as the most important components in Sven-Goran Eriksson's first choice line-up. Indeed, Gerrard has never finished on the losing side in 19 England games.

But the Swedish coach has been forced to consider a new midfield partnership with Lampard playing alongside Bayern Munich's Owen Hargreaves, who hasn't started an England match since the 1-1 draw with Argentina in Sapporo in the 2002 World Cup.

"They both have experience of international football but I'm confident that whoever comes in will do a good job for us," said Eriksson.

Lampard, who came on as a substitute and scored in the 3-1 friendly win over Croatia last month, is enjoying a rich vein of form. He was one of Chelsea's best players last season, a fact acknowledged by Claudio Ranieri who has started him in all five matches this season - despite the influx of new talent worth more than £100million.

Could Chelsea's extravagant spending force him on to the sidelines and consequently jeopardise his England chances? "He's been playing better and better for Chelsea and if he's good enough he'll be in the England team," said the England coach.

At least Eriksson can be confident of the former West Ham midfield player's fitness. But he was waiting today to see the extent of the groin injury Beckham suffered in Real Madrid's 1-1 draw with Villarreal last night. With Gerrard and Scholes out he needs Beckham, especially as Nicky Butt has played only 15 minutes football after receiving an ankle injury last month and Keiron Dyer is still worried by a hamstring strain.