Fabio Capello's preparations for England's friendly international against Germany on Wednesday were thrown into chaos last night by a spate of withdrawals and a club-versus-country row over the fitness of Steven Gerrard.

The Liverpool captain was pulled out by his club yesterday, citing a torn leg muscle, only to be told that he had to report to the team hotel in Hertfordshire, with the FA insisting that Gerrard's injury will be assessed by its doctors this morning.

John Terry also reported for duty after scans conducted by Chelsea showed that the foot injury picked up in Saturday's 3-0 win over West Bromwich Albion was not as bad as first feared and the captain is expected to travel to Berlin, but Joe Hart pulled out after the Manchester City goalkeeper sustained an ankle injury during their 2-2 draw with Hull City yesterday, leading to a recall for Paul Robinson.

The return of Robinson, for the first time since he was dropped by Steve McClaren before the decisive European Championship qualifier against Croatia 12 months ago, would in other circumstances be eye-catching, but as the Blackburn Rovers goalkeeper has little chance of playing this week, Capello is more concerned with the condition of Gerrard and renewing his battle of wills with Rafael Benítez.

The Italian was unimpressed when Liverpool chose to send Gerrard for groin surgery while England were playing World Cup qualifiers against Andorra and Croatia in September, particularly as the Spaniard did not extend him the courtesy of a phone call, and has retaliated by insisting that Gerrard report for duty last night. Gerrard is likely to be withdrawn from the squad after training this morning, but Capello is determined to reinforce the point made in the Fifa statute book, that national associations have control over their players.

Gerrard played for all 90 minutes of Liverpool's 2-0 win away to Bolton Wanderers on Saturday and scored their second goal, with the club's sudden announcement yesterday morning that their captain would be out for between seven and ten days with a torn leg muscle taking Capello by surprise. His sense of suspicion will have been aroused by the fact that Gerrard made a speedy return after missing the two qualifiers in the autumn. “Steven picked up an injury in yesterday's game at Bolton,” a Liverpool spokesman said. “A scan has confirmed a tear in the adductor magnus muscle in his right leg.”

The FA responded by releasing a statement confirming that Gerrard had joined up with the squad last night, a retaliatory move that will not have gone down well with Benítez.

The prognosis for Terry was considerably better. The England captain is determined to play after missing last month's World Cup qualifying wins over Kazakhstan and Belarus with a back problem. “I got shoved when in the air and landed awkwardly and I felt a sharp pain in the bottom of my foot,” he said. “It was throbbing at the time, but I'm desperate to go away with England. As captain I want to be there.”

Capello had always been planning to experiment with a young team in Berlin's Olympic Stadium, as shown by the presence of the uncapped trio of Curtis Davies, Gabriel Agbonlahor and Michael Mancienne in his squad - which, given the circumstances, is just as well. Rio Ferdinand (back), Wayne Rooney, Emile Heskey (both calf), Ashley Cole and Joe Cole (both hamstring) were ruled out before the squad was named on Saturday night, while David Beckham was not considered because of a lack of match fitness, leaving Capello without eight of his first-choice players.