England secured a straightforward 1-0 friendly win over Euro 2008 co-hosts Austria on Friday but suffered the more significant loss of Michael Owen to injury.
Already without Wayne Rooney for Wednesday's potentially decisive Euro 2008 Group E qualifier against Croatia, England saw striker Owen leave the pitch in Vienna after 34 minutes.
Manager Steve McClaren later confirmed that Owen had been ruled out of the match at Wembley.
"He won't be fit for Wednesday," McClaren told a post-match news conference. "It was a strange one, it was his standing foot. He's pulled his thigh and unfortunately he's out.
"That's football but we do seem to be plagued with injuries at the present moment and for what I believe will be our biggest game for quite some while we're going in without two centre halves and two centre forwards who we would pick."
England's problems at the back revolve around injured captain John Terry and the suspended Rio Ferdinand.
"It's disappointing but I believe and hope that Wednesday will be important," McClaren added, "and I believe there's enough in that dressing room and the squad has enough spirit that we will do it."
Owen indicated to the England bench that he wanted to come off after suffering the injury following a shot at goal.
HUGE BLOW
"It's a huge blow because we all know what Michael can do in big games," England midfielder Frank Lampard said of Owen's injury. "It's frustrating," he added on Sky Sports.
Jermaine Defoe replaced Owen whose strike partner Peter Crouch scored the only goal a minute before halftime when he headed in a David Beckham corner.
England made three more changes at the break and took time to adjust as Austria enjoyed a few rare forays up the pitch.
However, England's debutant goalkeeper Scott Carson was generally untroubled.
The nearest the home side came to a scoring opportunity was when they appealed in vain for a penalty following a tussle between Wes Brown and Austria captain Andreas Ivanschitz.
England had a chance to double the lead when Alex Manninger pushed away another short-range header from Crouch but the rest of the match was largely restricted to long-range efforts.
Austria, who have only won one match this year, are already guaranteed a place at next year's championships because of their status as co-hosts alongside neighbouring Switzerland.
England's chances of returning here next year are far less assured. On Saturday Steve McClaren's men can only watch on television as Group E rivals Croatia and Russia travel to Macedonia and Israel respectively.
A draw for Croatia and a win for the Russians would effectively end England's qualifying hopes and make Wednesday's encounter with the group leaders all but meaningless.
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