DANIEL Sturridge will start as a lone striker as England take on Republic of Ireland in a friendly at Wembley this evening.

The Liverpool striker will win his sixth senior cap and attempt to stake a claim for a starting spot in this autumn's crucial World Cup qualifiers with Moldova, Ukraine, Montenegro and Poland.

Wayne Rooney will play in the hole behind Sturridge, with Arsenal duo Theo Walcott and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain starting in the wide positions.

Frank Lampard and Michael Carrick will be England's holding midfielders, with Steven Gerrard unavailable because of injury.

Ashley Cole will controversially wear the captain's armband in recognition of the 100th cap that he won in February's friendly with Brazil.

Cole will skipper England for the first time in his career despite launching an expletive-filled tirade at FA officials on Twitter earlier this year.

Ireland, who are using tonight's game to help warm up for next week's World Cup qualifier with the Faroe Islands, have named Sunderland defender John O'Shea at centre-half.

O'Shea will be partnered by former Middlesbrough defender Sean St Ledger, with Sunderland duo Keiren Westwood and James McClean named amongst the substitutes.

Tonight's game will be the first meeting of the two teams since crowd trouble forced the abandonment of a game at Lansdowne Road in Dublin in 1995.

ENGLAND (4-2-3-1): Hart; Johnson, Cahill, Jagielka, Cole; Carrick, Lampard; Walcott, Rooney, Oxlade-Chamberlain; Sturridge.

Subs: Foster (gk), McCarthy (gk), Baines, Lescott, Jones, Milner, Rodwell, Defoe, Welbeck.

REPUBLIC OF IRELAND (4-4-2): Forde; Coleman, O'Shea, St Ledger, Kelly; Walters, Whelan, McCarthy, McGeady; Long, Keane.

Subs: Westwood (gk), Randolph (gk), Delaney, Keogh, O'Dea, McShane, Quinn, Hendrick, Meyler, McClean, Brady, Keogh, Sammon, Cox, Hoolahan.