Gerrard rates himself 50-50 to face Paraguay

Steven Gerrard is undergoing intensive sessions with a hip specialist to ensure that he takes part in England's opening World Cup game against Paraguay tomorrow. The Liverpool captain missed a second successive training session yesterday and later reported that his chances of playing in Frankfurt were "probably 50-50".

Michael Carrick, the Tottenham Hotspur midfielder, has been placed on standby and more will be known today when Gerrard hopes to be allowed to join the training when the England players get their first look at the 48,900-capacity Waldstadion. Gerrard has been in severe discomfort since hurting himself in England's first practice session after arriving in Germany.

"I got a knock on my hip and it has made my back go into spasms," he explained. "It's improving all the time and I've got a good chance of playing on Saturday. But I need to keep working on it from now until then. As we speak, I'm probably 50-50 but if it keeps improving, as it has done over the last 24 hours, I'll be there."

Gerrard emphasised that the injury was unrelated to the back problems that had plagued him earlier in his career. "I've had no back problems for years," he said. "It's simply come from taking a knock. I don't know how it's going to respond but it's improved a lot over the last day or so. If it keeps going in that direction I'm confident I'll be ready."

Gerrard's importance to the team is such that Sven-Goran Eriksson will allow the Professional Footballers' Association's player of the season until the last possible moment before making a decision about his involvement. At this late stage Eriksson will be alarmed by the possibility of having to reconfigure his line-up for anyone, and Gerrard is one of only three or four players he considers to be irreplaceable.

Contingency plans have been drawn up. Liverpool's Jamie Carragher, a centre-half by trade, initially filled Gerrard's position during training yesterday but Carrick, who is reputedly attracting interest from Manchester United, eventually moved into the role and is understood to be Eriksson's favoured choice.

Owen Hargreaves of Bayern Munich appears to have dropped down the pecking order after his indifferent performances in the recent B match against Belarus and the 3-1 friendly victory against Hungary at Old Trafford.