Alan Shearer has been given a deadline of tomorrow by Kevin Keegan to prove his fitness for England's opening match of Euro 2000 against Portugal in Eindhoven on Monday.

The striker suffered a knee injury in the friendly against Malta and underwent a scan before the squad left for their training base in Spa, Belgium, on Thursday.

"Hopefully he will be training today - that's what we are looking at," said Keegan today.

"We are not trying to hide anything. If he doesn't train he would have to train tomorrow to have a chance of playing in the first game.

"If Alan cannot announce his fitness by tomorrow morning then we will name a team that does not include him.

"He hasn't got to train for me. He has to train for himself as well. There are a lot of decisions to be made.

"With Alan, he has so much experience that to miss two or three days won't be a major problem. If it becomes five or six we have a major problem.

"Consultations will be between the player and the coach. They must be done in private.

"If Alan says 'look, I am not fit, but I want to play' then obviously he can't play. Then my decision would be not to play him.

"If he doesn't play he has five days before the next game. That is a plus point with Alan.

"I am always optimistic. I think he will be fit to play."

Keegan stressed that should Shearer not be fit to play in the tournament he would then be able to call on any English player as a replacement, not just those who were in his provisional 28-man squad.

However Keegan did not want to get drawn into the debate over which player he would call into the squad should Shearer not be fit.

"I don't think we have to go down that line with Alan Shearer. If he does not make the first game, he will be fit for the second game," he added.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.