Graphic: the crock squad

There is only one person responsible for ensuring that Steven Gerrard reports to the England camp when selected: that person is Steven Gerrard, and it is to be hoped that Fabio Capello, the national team's manager, reminded Gerrard of this before they parted company yesterday.

There was never any danger of the player being frogmarched into action against Germany in Berlin tomorrow, never any possibility that Capello would take an unnecessary chance with a midfield player who remains an integral part of his team. Capello is not stupid. He wishes to nurture the fitness of his best players, not challenge it. Gerrard was always going to return to Liverpool if examination revealed even a hint of a problem with a groin muscle. What Capello was establishing was a point of principle.

It goes like this. It is not the job of the England manager to pursue his players across country in the hope of persuading them to join up with the squad; nor is it the club manager who has the final say on availability. If picked, barring an obvious case for deselection such as that experienced by Joe Hart, the Manchester City goalkeeper, the onus is on the player to report and bowing to pressure at home will not be accepted as an excuse.

Players will always be encouraged by club managers to put country last and, privately, Capello wonders if Jamie Carragher was influenced by Rafael Benítez, his manager at Liverpool, when opting out of international football two summers ago. Capello knows that he is playing for high stakes and his stance over Gerrard was an attempt to resolve the club-versus-country quarrel before the end of his first year in charge. More power to him.

Non-competitive matches will always be the battleground. Unless a small club are hoping to hike the value of a playing asset using his international status - and in these days of Premier League wealth, when no club are looking to sell their best talent, that scenario applies only in exceptional circumstances, such as the selection of David Nugent during his time with Preston North End, or when Joe Lewis, the Peterborough United goalkeeper, was on the brink of selection for England's match with Trinidad & Tobago - such games will be considered a nuisance by managers.

There may have been a time when a manager at Aston Villa would have waved four of his players off on England duty with pound signs in his eyes, but not now. Martin O'Neill regards the match in Germany as meaningless and gives warning of player burnout. Why should he care that an England cap might add £5 million to the value of Gabriel Agbonlahor when the Aston Villa forward is not for sale?

Capello, however, knows the worth of the trip and because some of his most important decisions have been sparked by the evidence of friendlies - Jermain Defoe usurped Michael Owen at the end of last season with his performances against the United States and Trinidad & Tobago, while Emile Heskey came to the fore again after a second-half substitute appearance against the Czech Republic - he will not have them undervalued. By insisting on Gerrard's presence, Capello sought to assert his authority as he felt undermined by the high-handed nature of Liverpool's announcement of the player's withdrawal.

Capello did not request the presence of Wayne Rooney or Rio Ferdinand on Sunday because Manchester United contacted the England camp on Friday to give warning that the pair were not fit to play for the club against Stoke City. Gerrard, by contrast, played the whole game for Liverpool away to Bolton Wanderers on Saturday and was at his best in the second half. It was then announced that he would be missing for seven to ten days.

To use an English phrase, Capello thought that he was being taken for a mug and demanded his own scan as proof. By all accounts, the atmosphere was tense when it took place yesterday, even between the two sets of medical staff, with Liverpool club doctors making aggressive calls to the England headquarters on the subject of Gerrard's fitness.

And even though Gerrard's injury was confirmed, this will go down as a Capello win. What has been established is a modus operandi regarding future call-ups: it is the duty of the player to report for selection and if this incurs the displeasure of the club, the England management will fight on the side of the player. There is no question here of Gerrard falling out with Benítez because Capello's staff fought the battle for him.

That is how it has to be. Faced with two years of friendlies before Euro 96, Terry Venables told his players that, in the event of a no-show, they would be unable to hide behind an overbearing club manager. “If you don't turn up, I will blame you, not Alex Ferguson,” he told them. “You turn up, I will deal with your manager.”

In essence, the Venables ploy is what appears to have been adopted over Gerrard. Capello may have lost players before the trip to Berlin, but, importantly, he has not lost face.