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Eriksson promises improved display from England

First Published: Mar 31, 2003

England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson, hopeful Sol Campbell and Emile Heskey will prove their fitness, has promised a better display for the Euro 2004 qualifier against Turkey.

England laboured to a 2-0 victory away to Liechtenstein on Saturday when Michael Owen and David Beckham supplied the goals but will need to improve markedly if they are to defeat World Cup semi-finalists Turkey at Sunderland.

However, while Eriksson revealed that he may alter his tactics slightly, he is unlikely to make any changes to his line-up, apart from recalling Arsenal defender Campbell at the expense of Gareth Southgate.

Campbell missed Saturday's game with an Achilles problem but is expected to be fit to face Turkey.

First-choice goalkeeper David Seaman and Owen Hargreaves are both injured, but Eriksson said 17-year-old Wayne Rooney will not replace Heskey even if the Liverpool striker is also ruled out with a knee injury.

"Emile Heskey didn't seem too bad at half-time, he said it was no problem to go on. But he started limping after a while in the second-half and so we took him off," Eriksson said.

"We will see if it's only a knock or not. I think he will be okay for Wednesday, I hope so."

But the Swede ruled out starting the match with Rooney.

"I think he's ready but only part-time. I don't think we should expect him to come in and resolve a game against Turkey," he said.

"He might be good enough to start but we'll see. Let me think about it but maybe starting him isn't fair on him."