Walcott ruled out with chest injury
Walcott, 23, who won his 30th cap in his first start for England for nearly a year, collided with San Marino goalkeeper Aldo Simoncini and, after being treated on the pitch for five minutes, was taken to hospital for a scan and spent the night there.
England, perhaps shaken by Walcott’s injury, took 35 minutes to break the minnows down, with stand-in skipper Wayne Rooney opening the scoring from the spot. He added another in the second half, with Danny Welbeck scoring twice and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain adding the fifth to give the scoreline a truer reflection of England’s total domination of the match.
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Hide AdRooney took his impressive goal tally for England to 31 to make him their fifth highest scorer of all time.
While Rooney was heading up the charts, Oxlade-Chamberlain, 19, entered them, scoring his first international goal to become England’s fourth youngest scorer behind Rooney, Michael Owen and Tommy Lawton.