Midfielder Frank Lampard will miss England's friendly against Uruguay after suffering a hamstring injury in training. The Chelsea player's place at Anfield will go to Tottenham's Michael Carrick after manager Sven-Göran Eriksson named his team, handing a debut to Charlton Athletic striker Darren Bent.

Carrick's inclusion means a tactical tweak in central midfield, where goalscorer Lampard had provided the attacking thrust and Liverpool's Steven Gerrard had taken on more of the defensive duties. Carrick, who will collect his fifth England cap, is expected to take the holding role and give Gerrard the freedom to push forward. Carrick will be the latest to try out the defensive slot, played at times in World Cup qualifying by his Spurs team-mate Ledley King, a defender in this squad. Bent had been in several previous Eriksson squads but finally makes his debut as a reward for scoring 17 goals this season for Charlton.

England: P Robinson; G Neville, R Ferdinand, J Terry, W Bridge; D Beckham,M Carrick, S Gerrard, J Cole;W Rooney, D Bent.

David Beckham, meanwhile, has expressed his desire to retain the England captaincy when Eriksson departs after this summer's World Cup. The Real Madrid player also allayed fears about his back problem, both regarding tonight's friendly and the World Cup.

Beckham said: ''I was captain before Sven arrived as manager and thankfully he kept me as captain and I'm also hoping the next manager will also keep me as captain.

"I have expressed my feelings about wanting to carry on playing for England and to not retire from England whether I am captain or not. That is fact but I want to stay as England captain when Sven leaves."

Beckham's back complaint resurfaced at the weekend and resulted in him being substituted during Real Madrid's defeat by Mallorca. But the midfielder said: ''The back is fine. I had a chest infection the other night and also the back problem. But I've had a good sleep and a lot of massages and it is feeling good now.

''I am not concerned at all about the long-term implications. I go through stages of having a four-month period of when I don't feel it at all and then I go through a week where I've got aching pains but that doesn't worry me.

''It will not be a problem for the World Cup. It is probably the worse it's been on Saturday and now just two or three days later it is fine again. It is not going to be a problem."

Beckham also said that he did not expect the resignation of Real president Florentino Pérez, who brought him to the club, to affect his long-term future at Madrid, and still expects to extend his stay beyond the end of his contract in mid-2007.

"I've already been told not just by Florentino but other board members and directors that they want me to stay at the club.

"Whether that changes, I won't know until I get back to Madrid but, as far as I am concerned, my last talks with the directors indicated they want me to stay for a few more years."

Eriksson said Ashley Cole's latest injury would not hamper his World Cup chances. The Arsenal full-back hurt his ankle during Monday's reserve game against Tottenham, an appearance in which he hoped to build match fitness. Cole, 25, has missed much of the season with a foot fracture and then a thigh injury. Scans are expected to confirm that the latest ailment is a sprain rather than ligament damage. But the left-back is nevertheless set to be out of action for up to another month.

Eriksson, however, is convinced Cole will show few ill effects by the time the England squad leave for Germany.

''He is a quick one to get in form, with the body he has," Eriksson said. ''You would wait a long time to rule him out because he is maybe one of the best left-sided defenders in the world today."

*Robbie Keane has been confirmed as the new captain of the Republic of Ireland, with Newcastle goalkeeper Shay Given becoming vice-captain. Tottenham striker Keane, Ireland's all-time leading goalscorer, will lead out the team for the first time for tonight's friendly against Sweden in Dublin.

Keane, who has 25 goals and 64 caps to his name, said: ''I'm very grateful to [new coach Steve Staunton] for putting his trust in me and believing I can lead this team."

Keane succeeds Birmingham City's Kenny Cunningham, who retired from international football last year after Ireland's failure to qualify for the World Cup. Staunton has also handed first caps to Reading forward Kevin Doyle and Bolton right-back Joey O'Brien for tonight's game.

Chelsea left-back Asier del Horno has been suspended for only one match for his dismissal against Barcelona last week. Del Horno was shown a straight red card for a tackle on Lionel Messi during the Champions League first-leg tie at Stamford Bridge, won 2-1 by Barcelona. The foul, judged by the referee to have been violent conduct, would have landed the Spaniard with an automatic three-match European ban. But Chelsea have appealed successfully to Uefa that the foul did not constitute violent conduct.

Arsenal's Robin van Persie is no longer a suspect in a rape case, Rotterdam's public prosecutor announced, with the case dismissed for lack of evidence. The Dutch forward was arrested on suspicion of rape in June.

*England cricket captain Michael Vaughan and fast bowler Simon Jones are set to discover today the extent of the knee injuries that have forced them to leave the tour of India. Vaughan and Jones were both flying back to England on Tuesday and are set to see leading knee surgeon Derek Bickerstaff at Sheffield's Thornbury Hospital as the first Test begins in Nagpur.

Bickerstaff has treated both players before. He performed the surgery on Vaughan's knee in December, after the captain flew home from England's tour of Pakistan. Bickerstaff also helped Jones in his recovery, after he tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee in Brisbane on England's last Ashes tour in 2002-03.

*Russia's Marat Safin, the former tennis world number one, made an impressive return from a six-month injury lay-off when he beat compatriot and world number five Nikolay Davydenko 4-6 6-2 6-2 in the first round of the Dubai Open. Safin had not played since August after a knee ligament tear he sustained at Wimbledon.