Trevor Sinclair has caught a flight out of England to meet up with the England football team in Awaji Island, Japan - he is now in the England World Cup 2002 squad following the injury to Danny Murphy.

Sinclair should hopefully arrive in Japan in time to take some part in the last England's last friendly game against Cameroon on 26 May 2002.

                                     
                              Sinclair was in action last weekend against South Korea
                                                      wearing the number 24 shirt
 
 

Trevor Sinclair was on standby with the squad in South Korea to replace Kieron Dyer. He played the second half of the 1-1 draw with South Korea in a friendly on Tuesday 21 May 2002 in Jeju, South Korea. He wore the number 24 shirt in the match even though only 23 players can go to the World Cup.

After the match Sinclair said that he did not play that well due to the extra pressure of being on standby. The final 23 squad names had to be delivered to FIFA that night and the England manager, Sven Goran Eriksson named the injured Kieron Dyer in the squad rather than Trevor Sinclair.

Eriksson said he would have preferred Sinclair to have stayed with the squad as FIFA will allow replacements for injury up to 24 hours before England's first game on 2 June. Sinclair, however, wanted to return to England but remain on standby by training every day with his club side, West Ham United.

While Sinclair was flying home on 22 May, Danny Murphy broke his foot - see the Danny Murphy injury report here.

Eriksson therefore has requested Sinclair to meet up with the squad again at their new base in Awaji Island, Japan - this time he is travelling as a full squad member.

Eriksson said did not blame Sinclair for wanting to return home saying that being the 24th man and waiting for one of your friends to drop out through injury was not nice - he also said that Danny Murphy is someone who can play across midfield and Trevor Sinclair has shown he can do that too.