England: Danny Welbeck misses Brazil friendly with knee injury

Danny Welbeck

Danny Welbeck has been ruled out of England's friendly against Brazil at the Maracana with a knee injury.

The problem kept the Manchester United striker, 22, on the bench for England's 1-1 draw with Republic of Ireland in a friendly at Wembley on Wednesday.

And England manager Roy Hodgson says Welbeck will not play against Brazil.

"It's unfortunate that Danny hasn't recovered from Wednesday. We will have the requisite number of players on the bench though," Hodgson said.

"I haven't spoken to players about the team yet. We will train and I will tell them the team."

Welbeck joined in the warm-up as part of England's training session at the Urca military base in Rio on Friday.

However, he sat out the remainder of the hour-long open session and is unlikely to train ahead of Sunday's match, which start at 20:00 BST.

Tottenham striker Jermain Defoe is carrying an Achilles problem and will be assessed by England's medical staff before the game.

Hodgson has already already seen Liverpool duo Daniel Sturridge (ankle) and Andy Carroll (heel) pull out of the squad.

And with his forward options restricted, Hodgson may ask Arsenal's Theo Walcott to lead England's attack.

Hodgson added: "Theo could play as centre forward as we know he can do."