Football: Hoddle puts his arm around Gascoigne's shoulder

Brazil can omit Juninho, France reject Eric Cantona and Italy leave Roberto Baggio on the periphery. England, though, have no such luxury, and at Old Trafford this afternoon Paul Gascoigne will be given his latest shot at redemption.

It will be tempting to suggest that Gascoigne's career is at a crossroads, but he has reached so many of those a more appropriate analogy is a roundabout - every few months he reaches the same place. Once again he is returning from injury, once again he is attempting to forsake drinking shorts for wearing them, and once again England's hopes are thought to rest on his newly pared down frame.

The key match is not this afternoon against South Africa, but next Saturday against Poland in Katowice. A decent performance, and avoidance of injury, is all that is required of Gascoigne and his team-mates today. But between now and Saturday's World Cup qualifier there is another crucial date, Gascoigne's 30th birthday on Tuesday.

"If he goes out for a drink I'll go with him," was Hoddle's initial response. That should not be necessary as Gascoigne will be at Bisham Abbey preparing for the trip to Poland. "We'll have a cake made for him and we'll have a drink in the hotel," added Hoddle. "In a different situation, where I am not `hands-on', he would end up on the front pages. He is within our camp so he knows he has got to be sensible. If he does not do that he knows he'll be hammered, but that won't happen."

This, when you think about it, is pathetic. Gascoigne, at 30, still cannot be trusted not to go out on a bender and end up on the front page of the tabloids with a rogue DJ on each arm in the week of a critical World Cup match. And this is the man England are relying upon. Hod help us.

Gascoigne was due to speak to the media yesterday but Hoddle sensibly decided his preparation would be better served by keeping a low profile. He was then cajoled into talking about Gascoigne for the next 20 minutes.

Most of this was repetitive, but he did say: "You don't want to quell his spirit but he has to be guided. In many ways he is at his peak, if he can get himself mentally and physically right and keep himself like that, the game becomes easier. It is a bit harder physically but you can compensate by looking after yourself better and you see things through your experience you could never see when you were younger.

"I learned by changing a lot of things when I went abroad at 29. It made me fitter than I felt at 21. I can say to players: `It happened to me, you can do it'.

"Paul has had so much time out of the game with injuries it could put 18 months to two years on his career."

Gascoigne has been abroad and failed to learn, but Hoddle insisted: "It is a fresh start. It's not so much the next three weeks as the next 12 months which are important. He has worked extremely hard over the last two months to get fit and is delighted to be back.

"He has nothing to prove to me as a footballer. We just need to get him back to his best. He needs an arm round the shoulder and I think the only way Paul can turn this thing around is to be guided, but we can only do 50 per cent, Paul has to do the rest himself. He has got to get back to loving the game."

Referring to Cantona's retirement, Hoddle added: "The injuries have pegged Paul down, but I don't think he has ever thought of packing it in. I think the pressure, the media pressure, on the pair of them has been tremendous, but they are very different people."

New Gascoigne, new England? We shall see. South Africa will be difficult opponents today. Tough at the back, full of trickery and movement going forward, they led Brazil 2-0 a year ago today. Over-adventurousness led to a 3-2 defeat but they have only lost one of nine subsequent games - in the Congo where they were threatened by armed soldiers and locked out of the dressing-room before the game.

Hoddle is likely to play Rob Lee and David Batty as minders alongside Gascoigne with Phil Neville and Graeme Le Saux on the flanks. Teddy Sheringham and Alan Shearer may start, but England are more likely to finish with Paul Scholes and Andy Cole in attack. David Beckham may also make an appearance.

It is a mixture of trying to experiment and having to avoid injury while still producing a good performance and winning. Though this match carries a shadow of the importance of next week's tie in Poland, it can set the tone for the build-up to that match.

SOUTH AFRICA (probable): Arendse; Fish, Motaung, Nyathi, Radebe, Buthelezi, Khumalo, Moshoeu, Tinkler, Augustine, Masinga.

ENGLAND*

v South Africa

FLOWERS

BLACKBURN

CAMPBELL

TOTTENHAM

SOUTHGATE

ASTON VILLA

PEARCE

N FOREST

P NEVILLE

MAN UTD

LEE

NEWCASTLE

BATTY

NEWCASTLE

GASCOIGNE

RANGERS

LE SAUX

BLACKBURN

SHERINGHAM

TOTTENHAM

SHEARER

NEWCASTLE

*PROBABLE