The final friendly ahead of a tournament is something very special.

Being the manager you do worry. One must admit that.

You worry about the ever present risk of one or several of your players getting injured.

Yet you have to do what you can to stay calm. Keep cool. Come to terms with the level of stress amongst both players and staff.

But: Within yourself you know that an injury could ruin an entire championship – the entire Euros.

When misfortune rears its ugly head at this point, you've run out of options.

This is the reality all mangers face.

Next is the tactical aspect. A final friendly before a tournament is one of the most difficult matches you can play.

It's rarely a pleasure to watch. Maybe not complete rubbish, but often times quite bad.

The explanation for this is that mentally, you're already in the first match of the group stage.

Sure, pros like Zlatan, Mellberg and "Seb" Larsson always want to perform.

But I'm sure even the likes of David Beckham, John Terry and Frank Lampard will tell you that their thoughts were elsewhere with days to go until the Euros or the World Cup.

I've seen it up close.

They'll do everything they can to keep it within themselves though. Beckham for instance, was phenomenal when it came to saying the right thing at the right time whenever he wore the England shirt.

He would get into the tunnel and get the others riled up – shouting, gesturing. Whatever it took to bring the right attitude into place.

"It's game time, lads"

One of the most powerful experiences I've had in this category, however, was the speech Sol Campbell got up and delivered in front of the England team a week ahead of the 2002 World Cup.

I'm not joking, when this giant speaks, time stands still.

Me and Tord decided to just listen. We looked at each other and smiled knowingly.

"It's game time, lads!"

The message was delivered with tremendous presence and it was no surprise that Sol was the one scoring our first goal against Sweden.

When playing that last friendly you should avoid your rivals. As England manger, for instance, I never wanted to play Australia.

Aussies go crazy whenever they get a chance to play the English. My guess is that they'd be eating nothing but raw meat for weeks ahead of a chance like that to… well, you know.

Sweden's opponent at Råsunda tonight won't be an easy one either.

Sinisa Mihailovic has brought a team to Stockholm that'll do what they can to make sure this friendly won't be very friendly at all.

Zlatan and the boys need to be ready – and on their watch.

The last thing Erik Hamrén needs at this point is an injury.

****

Speaking of injuries… my good friend Roy Hodgson has got his hands full at the moment.

The injury list just keeps getting longer and with this, the amount of sleep Roy's getting is probably headed in the opposite direction.

Choosing Liverpool's Martin Kelly over Manchester United's Rio Ferdinand seems to have caught him in the typical crossfire of the English media.

And having selected six Liverpool players, Roy is the target of a smear campaign.

But I know Roy will face it without losing his composure. Remember, this is England. No squad is ever selected without criticism.

Personally I just find the whole thing to be quite silly.

First of all: They're all good footballers.

Secondly: Roy's got rock solid knowledge when it comes to the players current form.

So let me suggest that we all save our verdicts until after the tournament.

At the same time I understand Rio Ferdinand's disappointment. He was an incredibly important player for me in three tournaments.

But we mustn't forget that he has suffered through injuries this season.

And Roy has his reasons. Otherwise he wouldn't have rejected Rio – twice.

Many try to connect the dots between the race allegations against John Terry and Roy leaving Ferdinand out of the squad.

I know there is no truth to these claims.

How… ? You're just gonna have to trust me.

With less than a week to go, Roy wanted the player joining the squad to be match fit. Someone who has carried on with his training after the end of league play.

It has been an entirely football based decision. That's all there is to it.

But that doesn't seem to matter. Not a lot of happy faces in England right now.

I suspect there's one person who is very happy about Rio being left out though.

Let's call him Sir Alex.

Right now I'm just waiting for Ferguson's appraisal of Roy Hodgson, come his next media appearance.

That's how things play out in the footballing nation that is England.

SVEN-GÖRAN ERIKSSON

sport@expressen.se