Reuters Soccer Blog

So England coach Fabio Capello has been pretty true to his word about only wanting in-form players in his World Cup squad.

Theo Walcott will not be going to South Africa after two patchy friendly performances where he did a lot of running but the end product again just was not there. That hat-trick in qualification in Croatia in the end did nothing for his cause.

Darren Bent, Tom Huddlestone, Adam Johnson, Leighton Baines, Scott Parker and Michael Dawson are the other names to miss out.

Emile Heskey keeps his place, and fans may mutter that Capello has broken his in-form rule for the Aston Villa striker, but his decision to select Stephen Warnock as spare left back instead of a nervous Baines sticks to his principles.

Ledley King must think it’s Christmas having squeezed into the squad despite his dodgy fitness and Joe Cole will be pleased his hard work in recent months has finally paid off.

Gareth Barry is also fit enough to make the 23. What do you make of the squad?

Other nations are finalising their squads too but Walcott is the biggest omission so far. We’ll keep you updated here with any other surprises.