John Terry, the England captain, has been forced out of Saturday’s World Cup qualifying match against Kazakhstan because of injury and is unlikely to travel to Minsk for Wednesday’s tie against Belarus.

The news came as a blow to Fabio Capello, the England manager, after Terry pulled out of a proposed double training session having completed only 20 minutes. He and Emile Heskey, who also failed to last the session, have back injuries. Terry, the Chelsea centre half, has been struggling since the Champions League match against CFR Cluj in Romania last week and played against Aston Villa on Sunday with a supportive pad. Luiz Felipe Scolari, the Chelsea manager, predicted that the defender would be fine to play for England after three days’ rest, but he returned a day early and Scolari’s optimism proved unfounded.

Terry was in pain and struggling early in yesterday’s sessions and while it has been decided to give him the opportunity to recover for the match in Belarus, which Capello sees as the harder of the two games, his chances of being fit are minimal. It is probable that Terry will withdraw from the England camp in the next 24 hours and continue his rehabilitation at Chelsea.

Peter Crouch is the likely replacement for Heskey and Rio Ferdinand will fill Terry’s role as captain, with Matthew Upson, the West Ham United central defender, the favourite to get the nod as his partner, ahead of Joleon Lescott, of Everton. Lescott started in the qualifying match against Andorra last month but did not impress and was not on the substitutes’ bench in Croatia four days later, when Upson came on as a late replacement for Terry. Capello is, however, notorious for responding to form in training and nothing has been decided.

This is not the greatest setback that could befall Capello’s team — Kazakhstan at Wembley are hardly viewed as a significant threat and the emphasis is likely to be on the forwards, which is why Heskey’s injury caused equal alarm — but Capello will be frustrated if he loses his captain for the match in Minsk.

While Belarus are ranked No 59 in the world — slightly higher than Wales but not quite as good as Belgium — Capello regards the match as one of the difficult games in group six and believes that the opposition have the capacity to surprise on the counter-attack, not least through Alexander Hleb, the Barcelona and former Arsenal midfield player. England will be expected to win after last month’s 4-1 victory against Croatia in Zagreb, but Capello regarded putting out his best team as vital and was disappointed to have lost Joe Cole.

He will be mindful, too, that some of England’s most disappointing results in the past year have come when Terry has been absent, not least the defeat in Russia and the home game against Croatia, in which England’s defence was exposed and the hope of qualifying for Euro 2008 was crushed.

Beyond the immediate problems for England, there is a wider issue involving Chelsea, who are without Terry’s first-choice central defensive partner, Ricardo Carvalho. While Scolari, as a former coach of Brazil and Portugal, is regarded as an ally of Capello and is sympathetic to his problems, he will be anxious that Terry takes no chances and does not travel to Belarus unless fit.

Terry has a reputation for attempting to play through injury, sometimes foolishly so, but the word from the England camp last night was that he was resigned to his fate and accepts that playing against Belarus is a long shot. Capello will be keeping his fingers crossed that the expected victory over Kazakhstan does not come at too high a price and that Heskey recovers in time.

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