Sol Campbell is tipping Alan Shearer to make an eventual England comeback just 24 hours after the Newcastle striker reaffirmed his plans to quit international football.

Campbell believes it is not far-fetched to suggest that the England captain will change his mind, whether it be in the short or long-term, and be available to add to his 30 goals and 63 caps for his country.

Shearer has opted to finish at the age of 29, eight years after making his England debut and he has cited wanting to spend more time with his family as a major reason.

But Campbell has a gut feeling the striker has not been seen in an England shirt for the last time.

The Tottenham player said: ''With the situation he's in, he'll have to think about it but I am sure if push came to shove then in the long-term he'd come back."

Meanwhile, there has been no indication from Paul Ince as to whether he will decide to end his England career at the age of 33.

Ince had said he would make a decision depending on his and England's performance in Euro 2000, but the Middlesbrough midfielder has so far declined to comment.

Campbell's defensive partner Martin Keown has warned that England need to learn the lessons of their miserable campaign in time for their World Cup qualifiers next season.

Keown was one of the few success stories for England, who will face Germany at Wembley then travel to Finland in the space of four days in October.

The Arsenal player said: ''Everyone felt pretty low about not qualifying but we just weren't good enough.

''We were given a big examination and weren't able to answer all the questions. Kevin Keegan was unhappy that we did not pass the ball better or retain possession for longer.

''We all gave our utmost but hopefully the management, staff, everybody, will learn from what happened and English football will go on to better things.

''It was the first tournament of this size for the manager and some of the players and now we've got to move forward and progress.

''We've got the World Cup qualifiers coming up soon and we've got to do better in that tournament than this one.

''People say we struggled against two sides (Portugal and Romania) who pass the ball around and we will have to sit down and have a look at things.

''But we all need to learn from this experience as a group. We all need to stick together for the World Cup games and find a way through into the finals.''

l Geoff Thompson has encouraged Kevin Keegan to take advantage of all the technical and tactical help he needs from Howard Wilkinson and the FA's coaching staff as he bids to revive England's fortunes.

FA chairman Thompson still believes Keegan is the right man for the job, and has appealed for him to be given more time to achieve success.

He also admits Keegan has done the best he could with ''not a particularly strong squad.''

Thompson has offered the FA's entire technical, coaching and tactical back-up to Keegan.

Some observers feel Keegan should call in another coach with more international experience to help him.

That appears almost certain not to happen, with Keegan having consistently maintained he is happy with his backroom staff, which includes Derek Fazackerley, Arthur Cox and Les Reed.

Thompson, meanwhile, believes there is already the necessary pool of expertise within the FA's own technical department, led by Wilkinson.

The former Leeds and Sheffield Wednesday manager is attending Euro 2000 in an observational capacity and will write an assessment report for the FA on how England, as well as the other 15 competing countries, have fared.

Thompson said: ''We have got a very good technical director and a lot of good coaches. We have got to encourage the integration of that into the full international set-up.

''I think Kevin may need a little bit of help in that department and he would accept that himself.

''We will do all we can to help with whatever he needs and with whatever the technical department under Howard Wilkinson feel that we need to give him. We are also organising quality friendly matches against the likes of France, Italy and Spain.''

l Portugal's Paulo Sousa claims England's defenders were so bad that they reduced him to laughter.

Sousa was on the bench when Portugal came back from 2-0 down to beat England 3-2 in their opening match in Group A. Reliving the night, Sousa said: ''The English were a disappointment. They've only got (Paul) Scholes and (David) Beckham the rest of them are clumsy, slow and easy to get past.

''I was even laughing on the bench when I saw their defenders heading back towards their own penalty area rather than trying to tackle Figo.'