After seven days in their Austrian mountain hideaway, England make a brief return to London for their final international on home soil before they head to South Africa.

Yet there is a fear Capello might be scared to risk his star men on a pitch that has been roundly condemned for months and John Terry claimed "ruined" last Saturday's FA Cup final.

However the Italian insists he is relatively happy with the surface, which - despite its odd colour last weekend - he felt was a marked improvement on the one that was used for the semi-finals.

"The pitch for the FA Cup final was not perfect but I was happy because the players did not slip," he said.

"At the moment it is impossible to have a better pitch.

"The people at Wembley are working really hard but at the end of the season there are a lot of games with the play-offs and various finals.

"We once had seven games in a month at the San Siro and the grass was terrible. It needs time to grow.

"The most important thing is that the players don't slip like they did in the Tottenham-Portsmouth FA Cup semi-final. That was terrible."

Capello is still to determine the precise make-up of his team for Monday night.

However, he has already confirmed Joe Hart will win his second cap, probably as a second-half substitute for Robert Green.

With six permissible substitutes, Capello does have an element of flexibility with which to test the fitness of Rio Ferdinand and Ledley King amongst others - whilst he is already waiting for a knock on the door from Wayne Rooney, who happily appears to be over the groin injury that ended his season a few minutes early.

"Rooney always wants to play," he said.

"If I tell him no he says "I want to play", "I want to train", "Why do you substitute me?", "I want to score".

"It is good because he is positive to be around and he is an example to the other players."

Sir Alex Ferguson once revealed that Rooney always wanted to take penalties, even when Cristiano Ronaldo was at Manchester United.

The same is almost certainly true with England, although Frank Lampard is the man in possession and, despite becoming only the fourth player to miss from the spot in an FA Cup final last Saturday, will remain so.

"In my last game I missed a penalty because I knew the keeper," recalled Capello.

"James waited until the last moment to move and Lampard tried to shoot too close to the post.

"But it is better to miss now than at the World Cup and he is still my penalty-taker."

There has been plenty of experimenting in the mountains this week.

Oxygen masks have been provided to help acclimatise to conditions England will experience at their training base in Rustenburg and new balls are being used to replicate the additional movement that can be expected.

A three-man central defensive unit has also been tried whilst alternatives to Gareth Barry, whose own D-day is looming on Monday with a check on the ankle injury that threatens his entire World Cup, should provide Capello with the information he needs to make a final decision on the make-up of his midfield.

The one thing England have no need to work on is their mentality.

Capello made it a central feature of his early matches in charge to reinforce belief that his group of players can transfer club form onto the international stage.

Now he knows they can.

"We must have the confidence to win the World Cup and I have a lot of confidence in this team," he said.

"We have played very well so far. With the exception of Argentina we have played all the most important countries. I know them - and I think my England team can beat them all."