England manager Fabio Capello is optimistic captain John Terry will recover from an injury scare to lead his side in the glamour friendly against Brazil at Doha.

Terry emerged as a doubt after sustaining a knock to his ankle in training and was not present at a scheduled media briefing at the Ritz Carlton Hotel this morning.

Had the 28-year-old been ruled out he would have joined a lengthy injury list for the match with squad regulars Frank Lampard, Rio Ferdinand, David Beckham, Steven Gerrard, Glen Johnson, Ashley Cole, Emile Heskey, Carlton Cole and David James all missing already.

But Capello, who has no obvious captaincy replacement in the party, said: "He has hurt his ankle and we need to check him but I think he will be okay."

The Italian added: "He was running on his own and twisted his ankle. I am confident he will be fit for tomorrow.  The doctors think so but I won't take a risk. If he is not fit, he will not play."

Lampard sustained a thigh injury in training yesterday and flew home last night. "I think he will be out for two or three weeks," said Capello. "It is a little problem with his muscle."

Capello rejected suggestions the plane on which they flew to the Middle East was to blame for the problem. "It is the same plane (we used to fly to) Trinidad and Kazakhstan," he said.