Anyone
who thinks the England players are sweating over Fabio Capello's team
selections are wrong: the stars are busy pining over their absent WAGs.
The
England boss has banned video games entirely, and wives and girlfriends until
after the group stage, to leave the players disgruntled, restless, and cooped
up at the Royal Bafokeng Sports Campus.
According
to the trusty Daily Star, the squad have relentlessly begged the FA to let them
see their glamorous side-kicks, and their pleas may be finally answered.
A
'senior source' close to the players told the paper: "There are no video
games and we've all had enough of golf. Cabin fever is setting in."
The
England players are dying with boredom, despite their plush base boasting an
entertainment room with football games, golf simulators and beat-em-ups, The
Sun reveals.
"Breakfast,
training, lunch, sleep, dinner, bed, then DVDs of football matches late into
the night" - welcome to Wayne's World, the paper says quoting Rooney.
Meanwhile,
it was been a pitiful start to the campaign for European champions Spain, and
The Times (pictured, left) have goalkeeper Iker Casillas's misery being compounded by
his TV presenter girlfriend Sara Carbonero interviewing him in less than
sympathetic fashion.
"How
did you much that up?" Carbonero asked Casillas without a flicker of a
grin. The Spanish inquisition started there, and was continued in Marca
(pictured, below), who describe the defeat to Switzerland as "humiliating".
Back
to England, and Capello may have vowed to wait until two hours before kick-off
to name his side, but there are reports that Robert 'long-barrier' Green and
Jermain Defoe will start.
The
speculation rumbles on but, while most papers believe Capello will be drawing
the names of his keepers out of David Beckham's trilby, the Daily Mirror reveal
that the West Ham man has been given the green light.
Defoe
is to partner Wayne Rooney, according to the Daily Star, after Emile Heskey (if
you take your World Cup news from heskeyjokes.com) spent the week firing shots
at Green in training.
They
say that a goal every two games is the mark of a top class international
striker, which renders Heskey's solitary strike in his last 11 England caps a
return sufficiently shoddy for Capello to turn to Defoe.
Sol
Campbell has launched a scathing tirade in the direction of Capello for picking
"a couple of half-fit centre backs" - the defender, whose quotes
appear in the Daily Express, is clearly still feeling a tad bitter.
Paul
Merson says in the Daily Star that Gareth Barry is as important to England as Claude
Makelele was to Real Madrid, Chelsea and France, and the midfielder will make
the difference.
Harry
Redknapp says in his column in The Sun that David James must be handed the
England number one shirt and tactfully refers readers to the league table in
evaluating the credentials of West Ham's Green.
The World Cup group stage may well be as far as the hosts go,
and South African paper The Star (pictured, left) describes the 3-0 defeat to Uruguay
as "the day the vuvuzelas fell quiet", and interviews a bunch of
disgruntled fans from the Loftus Versfeld Stadium.
Algeria
midfielder Hassan Yebda has once again reminded England through the Daily
Mirror that he has no fear of his Group C rivals, and neither does his team.
Good, thanks for that.
Capello
has come out with the latest furious attack on the World Cup ball, and is
quoted in the Daily Mail as saying the Jabulani is ruining the tournament.
And
finally, Monaco goalkeeper Stephane Ruffier cut short his holiday after France
coach Raymond Domenech told him he would be required in South Africa.
Bordeaux
keeper Cedric Carrasso sustained a thigh injury to prompt Domenech to take
action with Ruffier calling quits on his family trip, only for FIFA to ban the
move. Poor lad.