ROY Hodgson last night admitted a serious injury to Theo Walcott had soured England's emphatic 5-0 victory over San Marino.

Walcott spent the night in hospital after he was involved in a sickening collision with San Marino goalkeeper Aldo Simoncini in the early stages of the game.

The Arsenal winger was unable to move for more than five minutes after Simoncini clattered into his chest as he attempted to chip the ball over his opponent.

He was eventually able to clamber to his feet and leave the field, but he was taken to hospital for examinations and will undergo a series of scans this morning.

He is a major doubt for Tuesday's game in Poland, and his early departure took much of the gloss of an otherwise routine victory.

“If I was to describe the challenge as reckless then I would be being kind,” said Hodgson, who saw Wayne Rooney and Danny Welbeck both claim braces before Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain rounded off the scoring with 13 minutes left. “I don't believe there was any malice when he (Simoncini) went for the ball, but it was a very bad challenge.

“It's put Theo in hospital, and when your goalkeeper does that, you are lucky for him to still be on the field and not to have conceded a penalty.

“It's a chest injury, and he will stay in hospital overnight and have a scan. It didn't look too good at the time, but we'll have to see how he is later.”

England had to wait more than half an hour to break the deadlock against a San Marino side that are rated as the joint worst in the world in the FIFA rankings.

Rooney's penalty set the ball rolling, and the hosts eventually ran out comfortable winners despite their opponents' reluctance to push out of their defensive third.

There were times, in open play, when San Marino had nine players in their own penalty area, a situation that presented its own challenges to England's players.

“I'm pleased with the evening's work,” said Hodgson. “It added a new meaning to the phrase 'attack against defence'. Normally, when you do attack against defence drills in training, you don't have seven defenders in the box at all times.

“I thought we probed effectively and created chances on a regular basis throughout the 90 minutes. I thought we were good value for our five goals.”

The victory took England back to the top of Group H in the World Cup qualifiers, and there was an added unexpected bonus when Ukraine could only draw 0-0 in Moldova.

England are now five points clear of Ukraine, and will attempt to increase their three-point advantage over Poland when they travel to Warsaw in three days time.

“Theo's injury has put a dampener on things, but I thought there were a lot of positives on the night,” said Hodgson. “There were almost 85,000 people here, which I thought was fantastic.

“Hopefully, the football we played entertained them. There could have been more goals, but there was a lot of goalmouth incident and a lot of good passing.

“The other positive of the evening happened in Moldova where Ukraine only succeeded in drawing and not winning. That makes our three points from Moldova weigh that little bit more heavily.”