Gareth Southgate is confident he will recover from torn knee ligaments in time for the Euro 2004 championships in Portugal.

The Boro skipper injured his knee in training just over a fortnight ago - leaving his chances of a place in the England squadhanging by a thread.

But, while his domestic season appears over, Southgate still has his eyes firmly on taking part in his fifth major championships.

Southgate said: ''I am confident I will be fit in time, it will just be a matter of whether England are ready to take me having missed the last six matches of the season.

''Sven-Goran Eriksson has left the door open for me by saying he will not announce his squad until the end of the season and that's great encouragement for me in terms of my rehabilitation.

"There will be others playing right up to the end and it's just the coach's call whether I go or not. I'd love to be involved."

With Newcastle's Jonathan Woodgate tearing a thigh muscle against Chelsea yesterday and Rio Ferdinand serving his eight month ban for failing to take a drugs test, there appear to be only two certain centre-backs in Eriksson's squad - Sol Campbell and John Terry.

The England coach is likely to take two more centre-halves to Portugal, and seems sure to give Boro's captain as much time as he can to prove his fitness.

Meanwhile, Southgate will open talks this summer about extending his contract at Middlesbrough - his current deal expires at the end of next season.

Southgate said: "There is a real positive feel about the place and there are things I want to discuss."

* Middlesbrough chief executive Keith Lamb confirmed the club offered to drop legal action against Liverpool over the contentious Christian Ziege in their bid to land Emile Heskey.

Boro moved for the England star in January and Lamb revealed the Teessiders did offer to drop their court case over Ziege's move to Anfield back in 2000.

The club settled out of court with Liverpool and Lamb said: "We did discuss the possibility of the court case being dropped as part of that transfer fee."

Read more about Middlesbrough here.