FABIO CAPELLO highlighted the importance of John Terry to his World Cup plans after England’s deposed skipper shrugged off some early jeers to help his side record a 3-1 friendly win over Egypt.

Terry’s name was greeted by a mixture of boos and cheers when it was read out prior to kick off, and the England centre-half was jeered on a number of occasions during the first half as he made his first international appearance following revelations of an affair with Wayne Bridge’s former girlfriend.

The crowd’s displeasure switched elsewhere after Matthew Upson’s first-half slip allowed Mohamed Zidan to fire Egypt into a surprise lead, and a shock looked on the cards as England trailed at the interval.

But with Terry helping to shore up the home side’s backline after the break, secondhalf substitutes Peter Crouch and Shaun Wright-Phillips shared three goals as Capello’s side won their final fixture before the announcement of a provisional 30-man World Cup squad.

Terry is certain to be named in that squad, despite losing the captain’s armband last month, and Capello is delighted to be able to call upon the former skipper’s services as he plans for a group that includes Egypt’s fellow north Africans, Algeria.

“I’m really happy with John Terry’s performance, and I want to say thank you to the crowd because they supported the team and John Terry,”

said the England boss.

“This was one of the most important games for him after the history of what has happened off the pitch. I thought he played a fantastic game, like I know he can play at this level.

“He showed how important he is to us. When I chose him as captain, I knew how valuable he was. He is very important to us on the pitch.”

While Terry is guaranteed his place in the squad that will travel to South Africa, a number of other players failed to further their claims for a World Cup spot.

Jermain Defoe in particular was unimpressive, spurning two decent first-half opportunities and finding himself substituted at the break.

His replacement, Crouch, scored twice in the space of 24 second-half minutes, taking his international tally to 20 goals in 37 games in the process.

Despite that ratio, the Tottenham striker has started just three of England’s last 22 matches, but Capello defended his decision to pair Wayne Rooney with Defoe rather than Crouch.

“Peter Crouch is in a good run of form and played well,”

he said. “But Crouch is one of the important players. He has played a lot of games for me.

At the moment, he’s in really good form, and whenever I pick a player in one of my squads, it is because I think he can play.

“But in this match, I wanted to understand what would happen with Defoe and Rooney together. I know what I can do when I play Rooney with Crouch, Carlton Cole or Emile Heskey, but I think it was good preparation for the World Cup to know everything about whether Rooney and Defoe can play together.”

On the evidence of the opening 45 minutes, they can’t, although Capello was at pains to point out that England had created three or four decent opportunities before the break.

“I was happy with the chances we had in the first half,” he said. “We had four chances where it was really easy to score. The Egypt keeper was really good, but perhaps in the first half we made some mistakes. I told my players they had to change some things at half-time, and they did everything I wanted in the second half.”

Capello also exonerated Matthew Upson of any blame for the slip that led to Egypt’s 23rd-minute opener.

“It is always possible to make a mistake,” he said.

“The Egypt goal was because our central defender slipped.

That can happen.”