The England coach lost two of his 23-man squad yesterday, with both Paul Robinson and Wes Brown announcing their international retirements.

In between, Capello watched Michael Carrick complete almost all of the Community Shield for Manchester United, having previously been told the midfielder was out for a fortnight with an ankle injury, and Chelsea's Daniel Sturridge come on as a substitute even though he had been ruled out of Under-21 duty in Bristol tomorrow.

Coming only a couple of weeks after Paul Scholes' claim that if he had been given more than two hours to decide whether he wanted to go to the World Cup or not he would probably have gone to South Africa, it has raised clear questions about Capello's ability to talk to his players.

But the Italian is adamant he has no issue to address.

In respecting the right of Robinson and Brown to reach the conclusions about their England futures, Capello has reluctantly decided to accept their decisions.

As for the injuries, as a former club boss, he believes these things are a natural part of pre-season.

"I spoke with Sir Alex Ferguson yesterday after he won the trophy and he said sorry," said Capello.

"He told me Carrick had been injured two days previously but then turned up on Saturday and said he wanted to play.

"I also had a conversation with (sporting director) Frank Arnesen at Chelsea about Daniel Sturridge.

"He said Sturridge had not trained for two weeks, which is why he was not selected for the Under-21s.

"In pre-season it is not easy to understand what really happens because you can recover from injury really quickly."

Capello also decided to set the record straight about Scholes, confirming the view that having asked the 35-year-old about the possibility of coming out of international retirement on the eve of his squad announcement in mid-May, the midfielder, man of the match yesterday after an imperious display in the Community Shield, indicated he would make the journey, only to change his mind the following morning.

"Scholes spoke with Franco Baldini in the evening and said yes, he would be happy to come with us to the World Cup," said Capello.

"In the morning, he rang Franco back and told him he had changed his mind and wanted to stay with his family instead.

"This is really what happened."