Hodgson guarded over line-up

England boss Roy Hodgson is keeping his cards close to his chest over his starting XI for the friendly clash against Italy on Wednesday..

Speculation is rife over who will line up in goal in the absence of Joe Hart, who pulled out of the encounter in Berne. Birmingham keeper Jack Butland is in contention with Norwich's John Ruddy for the vacant spot.

When asked who would start in goal, Hodgson told a press conference: "I can't say that because I haven't actually spoken to the players. I haven't even given them an indication of who is playing unless they try to read my mind during the training sessions and see how people line up there."

He went on: "As far as Jack and John, they're pretty much neck and neck for a place in the team and I'm still to decide whether I just choose one or whether possibly we have enough substitutes to enable me to give each of them a game.

"And that wouldn't be wrong and if we didn't have the restrictions on substitutes I could tell you now.

"But I have to be a little more careful when you can only use six.

"I'm quite anxious we give quite a lot of the players the chance to get on the field and play but we're only allowed six substitutes so in actual fact 19 players is still more than enough.

"We'll still have more substitutes than we're allowed."