Sunderland striker Niall Quinn has been forced to withdraw from the Republic of Ireland squad for Wednesday's friendly against fellow World Cup finalists USA at Lansdowne Road.

Quinn suffered a neck muscle injury in Saturday's 1-0 defeat by title-chasing Liverpool at the Stadium of Light and will stay at home to receive treatment.

Irish boss Mick McCarthy has no immediate plans to call up any replacement as he already has a 22-man squad travelling to Dublin for the game.

Quinn's injury is not regarded as serious and he should be available for the Republic's final World Cup warm-up game, also in Dublin, against Nigeria on May 16. In his absence, it is likely that against the USA McCarthy will again start with a strikeforce of Leeds' Robbie Keane and Blackburn's Damien Duff.

l Arsenal veteran centre-back Martin Keown was last night called into the England squad for Wednesday's friendly against Paraguay after two defenders pulled out due to injury.

Keown's teammate Sol Campbell and Ugo Ehiogu both suffered hamstring strains in the Gunners' 1-0 FA Cup semi-final win over Middlesbrough at Old Trafford that will keep them out of action for three weeks, while Rio Ferdinand is also injured.

Keown had only just returned from injury and this recall provides a last chance for him to secure a place in Sven-Goran Eriksson's World Cup squad.

l Sven-Goran Eriksson is looking for a new leader to emerge to replace injured England captain David Beckham as an inspirational force for England.

And he appeared to indicate that Gary Neville and Sol Campbell are the front-runners to become stand-in skipper, although Gareth Southgate has also been in the running.

Eriksson said: ''Many times in life, if one leader is missing, another one emerges from the group to take care of things and hopefully others will pop up as well.''

The England coach is still confident that Beckham will be wearing the captain's armband in the World Cup opener against Sweden on June 2 despite having broken a bone in his foot.

However, he must still appoint a stand-in skipper and the signs are that he is set to make the same appointment for all three warm-up matches.

Rio Ferdinand, who is the Leeds captain, is out of the running as a knee injury means he will not be involved in next week's friendly against Paraguay, while David Seaman and Steven Gerrard have also been considered.

Eriksson has not yet announced his choice, although he revealed: ''I don't think we have really had a vice-captain so I haven't really talked about it.''