Campbell carried off,
Batistuta in hospital
England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson and his Argentine counterpart Marcelo Bielsa had fresh injury worries on Sunday when Arsenal's Sol Campbell was carried off and Roma's Gabriel Batistuta was taken to hospital.
Eriksson, already reeling from the loss of captain David Beckham with a broken foot, watched as defender Campbell went off in the second half of the FA Cup semifinal against Middlesbrough with a suspected hamstring injury.
The centre-back pulled up clutching his left leg after 57 minutes with Arsenal leading 1-0 at Old Trafford.
Campbell was on Saturday named in Eriksson's squad for a World Cup warm-up against Paraguay on Wednesday and had been tipped as a temporary England captain in Beckham's absence.
Eriksson has confirmed he will name a new captain on Monday with Middlesbrough's Gareth Southgate and Beckham's United team Gary Neville now among the leading contenders.
NOT SERIOUS
Batistuta got a kick on the head in Sunday's Serie A match against Parma and is likely to miss Argentina's friendly with Germany on Wednesday, but the injury is not serious and he is expected to be released from hospital on Monday.
The former Fiorentina forward known as 'Batigol' was carried off on a stretcher in the 12th minute after he received an accidental kick in the head from Parma defender Fabio Cannavaro.
Batistuta was briefly unconscious and, after receiving attention in the dressing room, was taken by ambulance to Rome's San Pietro hospital but fears he was badly injured have eased.
"The player is absolutely fine," said hospital surgeon Ercole Brunetti. "Tomorrow morning he will undergo some more tests and if everything is alright we will release him..."
Batistuta had eight stitches in a cut lip but Italian news agency ANSA said, if there were no unexpected complications, the striker would be back in training within two or three days.
But he is unlikely to be ready for Wednesday's match in Stuttgart, which would have marked his return for the national side after a six-month absence.
Bielsa will now go into Wednesday's game without either of his first choice strikers as Lazio's Hernan Crespo has also been ruled out with injury.
England and Argentina will play each other in group F at the World Cup finals in South Korea and Japan and also face matches against Sweden and Nigeria.
ITALIANS DOUBTFUL
Italy coach Giovanni Trapattoni also had injury concerns as Inter Milan's Marco Materazzi and Christian Vieri were rated doubtful for the friendly against Uruguay on Wednesday after picking up injuries on Sunday.
Vieri suffered a thigh strain and Materazzi picked up a muscle strain in his right leg and was substituted at halftime in the 2-1 win over Brescia.
"I doubt that Vieri and Materazzi will be able to play for Italy on Wednesday," said Inter coach Hector Cuper.
ANSA said they would team up with the squad on Monday where they would be examined by the national team's medical staff.
Vieri missed Italy's most recent friendly, the 2-1 victory against England in March and there has been mounting concern over his apparent inability to play two games inside a week.
Meanwhile, a group of Japanese college students are trying to raise 3.5 million yen ($26,510) to install satellite TV dishes in Kabul so Afghan children can watch the World Cup.
They plan to have dishes at about 30 public facilities in war-torn Kabul ahead of the finals to be co-hosted by South Korea and Japan from May 31 to June 30.
