One of Kevin Keegan's more appealing traits is that, like a good boy scout, he believes in smiling and whistling under all difficulties. For any England coach this is the only serious alternative to becoming a manic depressive.

Yesterday, as England began to prepare for Saturday's European Championship qualifier against Luxembourg with the even more crucial encounter in Poland four days later, Keegan was faced not only with withdrawals and imminent withdrawals but the fact that the one striker he chose to ignore, Andy Cole, had just wasted no time in scoring four times for Manchester United against Newcastle United.

Keegan said: "Andy Cole's response was the perfect response for a professional footballer. Manchester United were playing at home against a side that's managerless and that situation helps. But still, to score four goals, I take my hat off to him.

"I had talked with Andy and told him I wanted to look at other options," Keegan continued. "He's 27 and the door's not closed unless he closes it." Given England's recurring bad luck with injuries there is a fair chance that Cole, in attempting to keep the said door ajar, would shut a foot in it. As it is, Keegan has lost Darren Anderton with a damaged Achillies and has another of his midfield options, Jamie Redknapp, awaiting the results of a scan on a similar injury.

In addition, Rio Ferdinand's ankle injury has ended the West Ham defender's slim chances of selection, Sol Campbell is probably out with a calf strain and David Seaman has until tomorrow to prove to Keegan that his troublesome shoulder has cleared up.

England, therefore, look like going into these two key matches which will decide whether or not they still have a chance of reaching Euro 2000 with weaknesses where they can least afford to be below strength, namely midfield and defence. Should Keegan lose Redknapp as well as Anderton he would probably have to pair Tim Sherwood, who did not train yesterday, with David Batty in the middle, flanked by David Beckham and, with Paul Scholes suspended for the Luxembourg game, Steve McManaman. Losing Beckham's powerful crosses in these two matches may not be what Keegan desires.

Certainly the form of Robbie Fowler has given the England coach something to enthuse about. Fowler is expected to start Saturday's game alongside Alan Shearer unless Keegan feels Michael Owen should be given an early opportunity to stretch his legs for England, and Fowler clearly impressed Keegan in Liverpool's 2-0 victory over Arsenal on Saturday.

"I thought his performance was at times breathtaking," Keegan declared. "For me Robbie stood out like a beacon."

Shearer's loss of form at Newcastle and his differences with the now-departed Ruud Gullit were never going to affect his England position for these two qualifiers and yesterday Keegan wasted no time in confirming the player's striker's selection as captain.

"I think what Alan Shearer has to try to do is draw a line now," said Keegan. "There has been a massive upheaval at his club and he has taken his fair share of flak in that. But I don't think Alan Shearer can be put under any more pressure and on Saturday he'll get the chance to write his own story. That's the beauty of football."

Beautiful or just plain ordinary, England have to beat both Luxembourg and the Poles to be sure of finishing second in their group.