England, Germany, Italy set for World Cup qualifiers

BALL GAME: Germany play their World Cup qualifiers against Russia and Wales.

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New Delhi: The England squad trained under rainy skies at Arsenal's training ground ahead of their World Cup 2010 qualifying matches against Kazakhstan and Belarus.

England won their opening games and are confident heading into their first clash against Kazakhstan.

The team has no injury worries and coach Fabio Capello is expected to start with a strike force of Wayne Rooney and Jermaine Defoe.

England currently share top spot in Group Six with Ukraine.

A fit Steven Gerrard will also look to make his return to the side though Frank Lampard agrees that it hass been long that he and Gerarrd, together, fired for the country.

"We both probably hold our hands up and say for the last couple of years we haven't done that so everyone's trying to find the solution. But it's not just me and Steven Gerrard it's the whole team. Croatia was a start as I said before and now we look forward to getting even better," Lampard said.

Germany, too, held a training session in Dusseldorf ahead of their World Cup qualifiers against Russia and Wales on Saturday.

Germany currently tops their group with a win and a draw from their first two games.

Captain Michael Ballack, who is back in Joachim Loew's squad, was at the training grounds.

Werder Bremen veteran midfielder Torsten Frings had missed Germany's opening qualifiers last month due to injury. Germany beat Liechtenstein 6-0 and drew 3-3 in Helsinki.

Italy will go into their qualifiers against Bulgaria and Montenegro with more bad news.

Goalkeeper Gigi Buffon and winger Mauro Camoranesi have been sidelined through injury.

Buffon is suffering from a strain in his right thigh and will be out of action for a month while Camoranesi will be out for at least 15 days due to a muscle problem.

Italy already have other injury concerns. They are without Marco Materazzi, Fabio Grosso and Andrea Pirlo to name a few.

Italy top qualifying Group Eight with six points following victories over Cyprus and Georgia.