England pair to return after injury

Posted Monday, June 02, 2014 by BBC.com

Midfielder Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and defender Phil Jones are set to start for England in their friendly against Ecuador after recovering from injuries.

Arsenal's Oxlade-Chamberlain, 20, and Manchester United's Jones, 22, have struggled with groin and shoulder problems respectively.

The pair missed England's 3-0 win over Peru, but should be fit for the match in Miami on Wednesday.

"They will both play from the start," said England manager Roy Hodgson.

"They could have both played against Peru, but we thought an extra day's training would do them more good than being on the bench."

Everton left-back Leighton Baines, 29, could be rested after he was substituted on Friday because of a groin strain, although Hodgson said it was not a serious issue.

Southampton's Luke Shaw, 18, may replace Baines after recovering from a cold that kept him out of the Peru game.

England play their final warm-up match against Honduras on 7 June, before they begin their World Cup campaign against Italy on 14 June in Manaus, Brazil.

Hodgson said: "Our plan really on Wednesday is basically to start the people who didn't start on Friday. But plans like that sometimes go astray and I'm not prepared to make any promises.

"We've got two more matches. Friday was an extremely important one, a good test and a good chance to see people play in a very serious game where there were 85,000 inside the stadium, which makes it a pretty serious game."

"Wednesday will be an opportunity for me to start the others and then by Saturday we've got all of them having played and ready to play. And then I'll have to make a decision over who does play against Italy."