England midfielder Steven Gerrard has revealed that he only has a “50-50” chance of playing in the World Cup opener against Paraguay on Saturday.
The midfielder missed Wednesday’s session with a back problem and only took part in Thursday’s warm-up ahead of England training in Baden-Baden.
He said afterwards: “I’ve got a good chance but, right now, it’s 50-50.”
However, there was better news for Sven Goran Eriksson’s team when Wayne Rooney ran out with the squad following his successful scan.
But Gerrard admitted his back problem was still concerning him.
“The back has been a bit of a problem over the last couple of days,” he said.
“I got a knock on my hip and it’s just made my back go into spasm a bit.
“Overall, I’ve got a good chance of playing, I’ve just got to keep working on it. If it keeps improving the way it has done over the past 24 hours I’ll be there.”
