Capello Warns Hargreaves: You'll Have To Play

Owen Hargreaves is still nowhere near his comeback. The midfielder is training alone, with the help of a physio even though physically he's supposed to be fit enough to be in full training by now. However, mentally he's not ready yet, as Sir Alex admitted earlier: he has to overcome a considerable psychological obstacle.

It is understandable: now he's got something to look forward to. As long as he's delaying his return to action, he can look forward to returning to action, no matter how foolish that sounds. But imagine if he made his comeback and suffered a serious injury again: all that would be ahead of him is the long and arduous road of rehabilitation once again. I can imagine that prospect being bleak and scary for him.

But Fabio Capello has fired a timely warning in his way: if he does not start playing regularly soon, he won't be selected for England's World Cup squad. Maybe this will give Hargreaves the motivation, maybe this warning will move him to overcome his own insecurities.

'Players who do not play will not be with me.

'I spoke to him two months ago, I met him in Manchester and he was just ready to start training. But now he is not fit. He has six months to recover his good form but he needs to play. I will choose players that will be fit in May, the players that play all the games.'

Hargreaves will play a lot of games if he ever recovers - our central midfield is not strong enough to ignore a player of his quality. But he cannot keep postponing his return because he's running out of time.

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