Meanwhile Wayne Rooney's progress in recovering from a broken foot has been praised by England head coach Sven-Goran Eriksson.
"I spoke to him last week and he was working hard, doing everything I asked him to do and maybe even more," he said.
For Jermain Defoe on World Cup standby (he's with the England squad at their training camp in Portugal this week), Rooney's May 26 deadline to prove he can play any part in the tournament (The Sun) means that Defoe will have to wait until then to realise his own fate.
Ian Hawkey wrote in The Sunday Times that "the main anxiety of the month" should not be allowed to cloud the fact the England team at the moment is still brimming with confidence (as the pictures from Portugal have illustrated).
The numbers for the World Cup have been issued to the England squad of 23. They are as follows: 1 Paul Robinson, 2 Gary Neville, 3 Ashley Cole, 4 Steven Gerrard, 5 Rio Ferdinand, 6 John Terry, 7 David Beckham, 8 Frank Lampard, 9 Wayne Rooney, 10 Michael Owen, 11 Joe Cole, 12 Sol Campbell, 13 David James, 14 Wayne Bridge, 15 Jamie Carragher, 16 Owen Hargreaves, 17 Jermaine Jenas, 18 Michael Carrick, 19 Aaron Lennon, 20 Stewart Downing, 21 Peter Crouch, 22 Robert Green, 23 Theo Walcott.