West Ham United can confirm James Tomkins and Junior Stanislas have withdrawn from the England Under-21 squad for the UEFA qualifying matches against Portugal and Lithuania.
Tomkins suffered a slight problem during preparations on Thursday while Stanislas was sent home with a virus. Both had been hoping to feature in Saturday's home match against Portugal at Wembley before the squad head to Lithuania for Tuesday's away encounter in Vilnius. Club-mate Zavon Hines remains with the squad, having scored twice in the last outing - a 6-3 home win against FYR Macedonia last month.
An FA statement said: "While Tomkins picked up an knock in training, which will see him return to West Ham for further assessment, Stanislas has been suffering from a virus and has shown no signs of improving so has also returned home."
England are going well in qualifying for the 2011 UEFA European Under-21 Championship, having won two and drawn one of their first three Group Nine matches. The Young Lions are six points behind leaders Greece with two games in hand.