Shilton Saves England World Cup Dreams

Wayne Rooney may not be fit to play... Michael Owen is injured... English world cup hopes lie in tatters.

At least they did until this morning when Peter Shilton emerged from decades of self-enforced exile to keep the dream alive. With a stunning display of brilliant technical insight and strategy Shilton could be the ray of light fans desperately need in this hour of darkness. Shilton admits things look bad. "Rooney and Owen are, to me, the two mainstays of the team," the former goalie said. "Without them, we could be in a bit of a mess, to be fair." Fortunately it was Shilton's following advice, that could only have come from playing for teams that never won much, that re-ignited the three lion's spirit: "we'll just have to keep our fingers crossed."

With so much at stake we can only hope Sven Goran Eriksonn is taking note of Shilton's genius advice. Indeed it is not too late to bring the soiled veteran into the English camp. A man who has the keen mind to realise that Eriksonn would only play Rooney in the tournament if he had recovered enough to play, can only be an asset at this time of need.