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The Three Lions play USA in their opening game of the showpiece event in South Africa, with the 39-year-old still sweating for fitness having succumbed to a minor knee problem earlier.
The initial reports point towards the 'keeper and fellow crocked team-mate Gareth Barry being rested for the opener, while the former Real Madrid boss is keeping quiet about his favoured custodian.
However, The Mirror reports that the players are in favour of veteran James being the first-choice glovesman during the tournament. And one of the players is believed to have gone so far as to tell the gaffer that he would like to have James as the nation's last line of defence.
It is said that the players prefer to have the ageing shot-stopper behind them due to his experience and vocal nature.
If James is rested during the encounter against USA, then either Robert Green or Joe Hart will be called upon to do the duties in England's first game of the competition.
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"But, we came through. Obviously there were a lot of changes so it's good to get the result.
"Belgium are a very, very strong side who are going to be really good in the future. Vincent [Kompany] told me about them and said that they were coming good and I totally agree with him."
"[Gary] Cahill I suppose is slightly more of a concern for me because it is a jaw injury. We're desperately hoping the CT scan doesn't show any fracture and it's just going to be a bruising situation, which will be bad enough, but won't stop him taking part in the tournament. As far as John's [Terry] concerned he felt his hamstring a little bit. Again it wasn't a major thing when he came off but we still need to scan it just to be 100 per cent sure."
Suffice to say, if Cahill has broken his jaw, he won't play any part in the tournament.
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