Theo Walcott is a major doubt for England’s crucial trip to Poland on Tuesday after he was involved in a ‘fierce’ challenge during Friday night’s 5-0 World Cup qualifier victory against San Marino.
England manager Roy Hodgson told BBC Sport that the Arsenal winger will stay overnight in hospital after he was substituted with a chest injury following a nasty collision with goalkeeper Aldo Simoncini.
Hodgson said: “We have to find out the extent of his injury but he will be in hospital overnight and he will be having a scan.
“It is a chest injury. It didn’t look good and until such time as they have X-rayed it and scanned it I really don’t know.”
England failed to excel in front of a virtually sold-out Wembley against the defensive minded minnows, who are ranked 207th in the world, before Wayne Rooney made the vital breakthrough thanks to sweetly struck penalty after 35 minutes of frustration.
His club and country partner in crime Danny Welbeck notched the second just two minutes later and the Manchester United pairing doubled the lead in the second half before Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s first England goal added some much needed gloss to the scoreline.
Rooney’s double were his 30th and 31st goals for the country taking him past Nat Lofthouse, Tom Finney and Alan Shearer in England’s all-time list of goalscorers
Hodgson added: “If I described the challenge as reckless I would be being kind. It was a very fierce challenge.
“I don’t believe there was any malice. But it put a dampener on the evening.”