Walcott ruled out with chest injury

ARSENAL winger Theo Walcott will not play in England’s World Cup qualifier in Poland on Tuesday after suffering a chest injury five minutes into their Group H win over San Marino at Wembley on Friday.

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.

Rooney 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.