Rice mystery

Mystery surrounds Declan Rice’s absence from the England training session yesterday ahead of the game against minnows Andorra on Saturday evening.

But fears that he may be suffering an injury can almost certainly be discounted given that he has travelled with the squad.

However, it seems unlikely that he will – or indeed SHOULD – be involved in the Group I match where England top the group with 16 points and Andorra lie second bottom with just three.

In terms of a mismatch it’s hard to find anything comparable and it’ would be managerial madness for Gareth Southgate to play his strongest team.

Declan  had appeared to be holding his hamstring towards the end of the game against Brentford although a Hammers source told ClaretandHugh there were no problems other than cramp.

But nobody at the club could throw any light on his absence from England training with once source simply commenting: “You know as much as us.”