Frank Lampard (5/1 to be top England goalscorer) has spoken of his disappointment for teammate and captain Rio Ferdinand, as well as his delight in being promoted to vice-captain.

The Chelsea midfielder has profited from Ferdinand’s enforced absence through a knee ligament injury, earning Fabio Capello’s nod to be vice-captain once Steven Gerrard was named as Ferdinand’s replacement (13/8 for any England game to go to penalties).

Lampard said: “I was told by the manager and (assistant) Franco Baldini yesterday and I am very proud of that.

“Obviously I am very disappointed for Rio. He is a mate.

“But what can I do? I shall just try to give my input as a vice-captain.”

Lampard has always been close to Ferdinand and offered words of consolation to him.

“I am very disappointed for him to say the least,” said Lampard.

“I spoke to him last night and he is obviously very down.

“He is such a good mate and for this to happen in the build-up to the biggest tournament made me feel sick in my stomach.”

Lampard described the incident when Ferdinand fell as “a freak”. But he admitted he was immediately concerned about the impact it would have.

“I was fearful for him because you could see the pain of the fall but also there was an element of fear,” he said.

“We all understand that. We’ve all had moments during our club careers as well where there’s big games coming up and you feel you might have done something to put you out of that game.

“I understood straight away that it was potentially a bad one and then it was fingers crossed for the scan and obviously it turned out to be bad.”

USA coach Bob Bradley was taking no satisfaction from Ferdinand’s withdrawal, despite it giving his side something of a tonic ahead of their fixture next Saturday.

“Whenever you get close to a World Cup and see players pick up late injuries and miss out, then I think all players, all coaches, everyone in the game, feels bad when that happens,” said Bradley.

When a player like Rio Ferdinand goes down injured, when there is a question mark against Didier Drogba etc, these are things you don’t want to see.”

Meanwhile, Gareth Barry was able to train on his own on Saturday as Capello gives the Manchester City man every opportunity to prove himself fit following an ankle injury.

Capello hopes the 29-year-old will be able to train properly immediately after the United States encounter and be available for the second game against Algeria in Cape Town on June 18.

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