Capello left with trouble in defence after King is ruled out

Ledley King will continue to be monitored on a daily basis amid reports that his World Cup campaign is over.

King suffered a groin injury in Saturday's draw with the United States and was immediately ruled out of Friday's second Group C encounter against Algeria in Cape Town.

However, it is thought the damage is serious and with a recovery period of three weeks hinted at, the fear is that King will play no further part in the competition.

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The 29-year-old was at training yesterday morning but spent only the briefest time on the pitch when Fabio Capello delivered a short address to the squad.

He then made his way to the pool to continue his rehabilitation work.

"Ledley has a groin muscle strain. He will be assessed on a day-to-day basis," said a Football Association spokesman.

King was accompanied by Ashley Cole and Wayne Rooney, the latter having got a kick on the ankle during the weekend draw, but the FA insist the problem is not serious and should not threaten his participation against Algeria, who lost their opening game against Slovenia on Sunday.

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There was nothing unusual in Cole's pool work either given his training regime is a legacy of past injuries.

King's situation is more of a problem and exacerbates the

ill-fortune England suffered on their first full day of training in Rustenburg when captain Rio Ferdinand was ruled out of the tournament with a knee injury suffered in a "freak" incident with Emile Heskey.

Ferdinand flew home on Sunday, so now King's absence leaves Capello's defence short of pace unless he opts to hand Michael Dawson his debut on Friday, which is highly unlikely.

Jamie Carragher was the replacement on Saturday but he was badly exposed at times.

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The only other option is Matthew Upson, who has started nine times since October 2008 but was shunted down the pecking order once Capello made his decision to bring King and Carragher into the England fold despite not playing a minute in qualifying.

Even if King pushed the boundaries of his recovery and was available within a fortnight, he would still be missing until the quarter-finals.