Three Lions in Austria

Robert Green, Matthew Upson and Scott Parker have been put through their paces on Wednesday as they bid for a place in England's final 23-man FIFA World Cup squad.

The West Ham United trio flew out to Austria alongside their Three Lions colleagues to take part in a special training camp in the village of Irdning, near the city of Graz in the Austrian Alps.

Green, Upson and Parker are among 30 players working with manager Fabio Capello and his staff to help them assimilate to the high altitude they will experience in South Africa. There was a scare for Upson when he clashed heads with Jermain Defoe, but he was given the all-clear after treatment.

Five players involved in Saturday's FA Cup final - Chelsea's John Terry, Ashley Cole Frank Lampard and Joe Cole and Portsmouth goalkeeper David James - joined the squad on Wednesday, as did injured Manchester City midfielder Gareth Barry.

Matthew Upson

Irdning sits more than 2,000 feet above sea level, and is regularly used by clubs and national teams for high-altitude training camps. As well as England, eight other World Cup-bound squads are set to workout in the area ahead of next month's tournament, including Spain and the Netherlands.

Capello knows the village's facilities very well, having taken his Real Madrid and AS Roma squads to use them in previous years.

The Italian will hope the preparations will stand England in good stead for when they kick-off their World Cup challenge in Rustenburg - altitude 4,900 feet - on 12 June.

England's second Group C match against Algeria on 18 June will take place at sea level in Cape Town, while the final group-stage fixture against Slovenia will be held at low altitude in Port Elizabeth on 23 June.

On Wednesday, the squad emerged from the 12th century Hotel Schloss Pichlarn to hold an open training session was held in front of the world's media.

There, Hammer of the Year Parker was hoping to impress after being named in a senior England squad for the first time since being called-up as a replacement for the 2-1 friendly victory over Germany in Berlin in November 2008.

The 29-year-old won the last of his three caps under Steve McClaren in the 2-0 UEFA European Championship qualifying defeat in Croatia in October 2006.

Club-mate Upson scored his first international goal in the aforementioned win in Germany and will be confident of adding to his 19 caps when England host Mexico at Wembley next Monday evening.

Green, who has nine caps, will be eager to strengthen his claim to be the No1 goalkeeper after missing the last World Cup with a groin injury suffered in a B-team friendly against Belarus at Reading's Madejski Stadium in May 2006.