World Cup 2010: Last man standing

Dubai : Tottenham defender Michael Dawson is not the only England player to have experienced the bitter-sweet taste of replacing an injured teammate on the eve of a World Cup. Eight years ago, Trevor Sinclair was the beneficiary after Danny Murphy broke his metatarsal. And the former Manchester City midfielder's case is unique considering Murphy had already been drafted into Sven Goran Eriksson's 23-man squad as a replacement for Steven Gerrard, who had his own World Cup dream shattered due to a groin injury.

Sinclair would go on to represent his country on just 12 occasions, but Murphy's misfortune saw him earn four of those caps on the biggest stage of them all in Korea-Japan 2002.

"It was easily the highlight of my career," said Sinclair in an exclusive chat with XPRESS.

Eriksson had chosen Dubai for a training camp before his final squad was due to fly out to Korea. Sinclair said: "I was kind of the third choice midfielder. It was a little bit different [to Dawson] because there were fitness fears over a couple of players when we came out to Dubai."

Sinclair turned out to be the only additional man to accompany the final squad at the behest of the coaching staff and the FA, a situation which left him feeling "uncomfortable". "It was like I was waiting for someone to get injured," he said.

At that point Sinclair revealed his feelings to Eriksson and FA chief executive Adam Crozier. "I reassured them I would train back home every day until the final deadline for squads. They agreed, so I came home and I'd hardly landed when I find out about Danny Murphy's scan. I was gutted for him, but it was a straight opportunity for myself."

It took another injury for Sinclair to make his first World Cup appearance, when he replaced Owen Hargreaves in the 19th minute of England's Group F clash with Argentina. But it was the quarter-final meeting with eventual champions Brazil which he said made him truly feel part of the team. "If we could have just got to half-time 1-0 up, you never know what might have happened," said Sinclair, widely regarded as one of England's best players of that campaign. "Unfortunately Rivaldo had to score just on the stroke of half-time. I've got vivid memories of him taking his blue jersey off and revealing his bright yellow vest. I was just left thinking, ‘If only we could have lasted another couple of minutes'."

None the less, Sinclair, now a Dubai resident, believes the current squad which would have had five survivors from the 2002 roster prior to captain Rio Ferdinand's injury are capable of ending England's 44-year wait for World Cup glory. "I really think we've got a chance this year," said the 37-year-old. "We've got some great players throughout the team. We've got some players who work tirelessly like [James] Milner and Shaun Wright-Phillips. Michael Carrick will play the holding role, he will not want to be the superstar of the team. And then we have the superstars as we know."

‘I'm gutted for you Rio'

Trevor Sinclair paid tribute to his former England and West Ham teammate Rio Ferdinand who will miss the 2010 Fifa World Cup after damaging knee ligaments in a training session.

"People have told me Rio's not that good or he's overrated," Sinclair told XPRESS. "I trained with him for a few years at West Ham and that was when he was a kid. He wasn't the player he is now. They call him ‘Rio the Rolls-Royce'. It's probably such an apt name for him because he is truly a fantastic athlete who reads the game so well. People underrate him or say he's overrated because he makes everything look so easy. "This would have been his fourth World Cup. I sent him a message myself saying ‘I'm really gutted for you'," said Sinclair.