Seaman out of England's last qualifier

Manchester, England - England goalkeeper David Seaman has failed to recover from a shoulder injury and will miss his side's final World Cup qualifier against Greece at Old Trafford on Saturday.

An English Football Association (FA) spokesman said on Thursday that the 38-year-old's right shoulder was still sore when he trained on Thursday. The Arsenal player had left the squad, he added.

Leicester's Ian Walker has been called up as cover but Leeds United's Nigel Martyn is likely to start the European group nine game with Richard Wright, Seaman's understudy at Arsenal, on the bench.

Seaman missed Arsenal's 2-0 win at Derby County last Saturday after aggravating the shoulder injury in the club's 1-0 Champions League defeat by Panathinaikos in Greece three days earlier.

England manager Sven Goran Eriksson said on Wednesday that he was not unduly concerned about the injury as he had absolute faith in his other goalkeepers.

Martyn has been in great form for his club in recent seasons but on the few occasions he has replaced Seaman for England he has struggled.

In August he failed to hold a straightforward shot by Boudewijn Zenden, allowing Ruud van Nistelrooy an easy goal in the Netherlands' 2-0 friendly victory at White Hart Lane.

West Ham United goalkeeper David James was injured in the same match and has not played since.

In the 2000 European championship Martyn was given a last-minute call-up when Seaman was injured in the warm-up against Romania and promptly gifted Doriel Munteanu the Romanians' second goal in a 3-2 defeat that ended England's interest in the tournament.

Wright, who moved from Ipswich Town to Arsenal for £6,6-million (about R858m) in July, made his first appearance for the club against Derby.

Manchester United midfielder Nicky Butt remained Eriksson's main injury doubt for Saturday's game with with bruised ribs from last weekend's 5-3 win over Tottenham Hotspur.

As on Wednesday, when he did not train with the rest of the squad, Butt did light field work with an England physiotherapist and will be assessed on Friday.

England top the group but are only ahead of Germany on goal difference. The English will win the group if they beat Greece N as long as Germany do not beat Finland by a margin six or more goals better than England's winning margin. - Reuters