Capello leaves Walcott behind

Four years after earning a sensational selection for the 2006 World Cup, Theo Walcott has been left out of Fabio Capello's England squad for this year's tournament in South Africa.

Walcott has endured an injury-troubled time since scoring his memorable hat-trick against Croatia to launch England's qualifying campaign in September 2008.

Yet Capello has today delivered his own verdict on the 21-year-old, leaving him out of a 23-man party that includes Shaun Wright-Phillips instead.

Tom Huddlestone, Adam Johnson, Darren Bent, Michael Dawson and Scott Parker were not expected to be involved and can now start booking their summer holidays after Capello confirmed they would not be part of his squad.

Aside from Walcott, the one unexpected decision involved Stephen Warnock's selection ahead of Leighton Baines, whose discomfort at committing himself to being away from home for six weeks eventually counted against him, even though he featured against Egypt and Mexico while the Aston Villa man did not.

England's 23-man squad for the World Cup finals in South Africa: J Hart, D James, R Green; J Carragher, A Cole, R Ferdinand, G Johnson, L King, J Terry, M Upson, S Warnock; G Barry, M Carrick, J Cole, S Gerrard, F Lampard, A Lennon, J Milner, S Wright-Phillips; P Crouch, J Defoe, E Heskey, W Rooney.