Terry: Fitness fight

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John Terry will only have one training session to prove his fitness to Fabio Capello ahead of England's trip to Belarus.

Captain Terry missed the 5-1 victory over Kazakhstan at Wembley on Saturday with a back problem which first flared up during Chelsea's UEFA Champions League draw with CFR Cluj.

With the Three Lions flying out to Minsk on Tuesday morning, the influential centre-back is facing a race against time to convince the Italian that he is ready for 90 minutes of international action.

Rio Ferdinand took the armband in Terry's absence at the weekend with Matthew Upson drafted into the side, but the West Ham centre-back looked nervous at times.

Football Association director of communications Adrian Bevington confirmed that Terry was due to train with his team-mates on Monday, after which a decision would be made over whether he will travel with the squad.

Decision

Bevington told Sky Sports News: "John is working with the physio Gary Lewin today (Sunday) and he'll be doing some jogging and gym work.

"Tomorrow he'll hopefully be training with the rest of the squad and that's when Fabio will make his decision, after training tomorrow.

"I'm sure that Fabio, with the medical staff, and John will decide on that once it is clear whether he can make the trip or not.

"We fly on Tuesday morning, so a decision will have to be made once training is out of the way tomorrow."

England have made a 100 per cent start to their Group 6 World Cup qualifying campaign and will be eager to make it 12 points from four games on Wednesday night.

Momentum

Bevington insists that the squad remain focused on qualification for South Africa in 2010, and are not getting carried away by their recent victories, in particular the 4-1 thrashing of Croatia in Zagreb.

He added: "We're making some steps forward and there is a little bit of momentum building, but no-one has got carried away after Croatia.

"The players were determined and Fabio was determined that no-one would start making bold predictions and bold statements.

"The players have kept their feet firmly on the ground and they know they've got to build step-by-step. It's building very nicely but we've got a big game, and not an easy game, against Belarus on Wednesday night."