In the aftermath of David Beckham’s triumphant return against Estonia, Steve McClaren seemed set to spend the summer agonising over which of Owen Hargreaves, Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard to leave out of his central midfield. How the England head coach would love to be facing such a dilemma before the resumption of the European Championship campaign.

Such are McClaren’s lack of options that he was forced to use Jermain Defoe and Peter Crouch in midfield at various points as the squad trained for the first time at London Colney, Hertfordshire, yesterday. Crouch did create a goal with a defence-splitting pass that Cesc Fàbregas would have been proud to reproduce on the fields where Arsenal train, but even such an unexpected piece of skill seemed to serve as a taunt to McClaren. The Liverpool striker cannot face Israel at Wembley on Saturday because of suspension, so the unthinkable is out of the question.

England’s training matches should feature more orthodox personnel today when Hargreaves returns after resting a knee that is still troubled by tendinitis, although McClaren’s options will not increase markedly. The England head coach is willing to risk incurring the wrath of Rafael BenÍtez by subjecting Gerrard to painkilling injections on his broken toe to get him on the pitch on Saturday, but no amount of needles will alter the availability of Lampard, who has an outside chance of featuring against Russia a week today, or Beckham, who remains in Los Angeles with a wounded knee.

McClaren will have been heartened to hear Gerrard tell watching fans that he is feeling fine and expects to be fully fit by the weekend, as his plan B does not inspire much confidence. Michael Carrick appeared a peripheral figure at training yesterday and seems to be paying the price for his poor performance against Germany last month.

Carrick was replaced by Gareth Barry against Germany and, on yesterday’s evidence, the Aston Villa captain has supplanted him in McClaren’s plans should Gerrard be ruled out. Barry spent much of the session playing with England’s putative first team in central midfield and looked sharp throughout, passing the ball well and scoring from the well-worked move begun by Crouch’s impersonation of Fàbregas.

Barry’s sudden surge up the pecking order is curious because McClaren has previously shown little interest in him. The 26-year-old was recalled for the first time in four years for the friendly international against Spain at Old Trafford in February, but was not used until the second half – when he was deployed on the left – and has not played any part in a competitive match under the present regime.

Barry did put in an impressive performance in the B international against Albania in May, however, contributing an assist in England’s 3-1 win, and has been consistently championed by his club manager, Martin O’Neill. In a pressurised environment he can at least be relied upon to perform consistently.

It would appear that McClaren is leaning towards preferring the experience of David James rather than the underpressure Paul Robinson, of Tottenham Hotspur. The Portsmouth goalkeeper played with the first-choice back four throughout, making several impressive saves, particularly from Andrew Johnson, and stayed behind for extra work after training with Ray Clemence.

McClaren used a variety of forward pairings, with Johnson looking particularly sharp, but logic suggests that he will pair Michael Owen with Emile Heskey. A last-minute call-up for Heskey makes no sense at all without playing him and the Wigan Athletic’s forward partnership with Owen has worked in the past, with the pair scoring 14 international goals in the 12 matches they have started together.