Sinclair - having a fairytale tournament (Allsport)

By Frank Malley, PA Chief Sports Writer, Kobe

With the wry wit which is becoming an increasing feature of his England captaincy David Beckham summed up the extraordinary journey of Trevor Sinclair.

"He's never even played in a Worthington Cup quarter-final - never mind a World Cup quarter-final," said Beckham.

Sinclair, however, will walk out at the Stadium Ecopa on Friday to face Brazil for the biggest game of his career and the realisation of his boyhood dream.

As a boy Sinclair used to run around the school playground and imagine he was Pele, playing in the World Cup finals, controlling the play, scoring the goals and then lifting the most famous trophy in sport.

Three weeks ago when the West Ham midfielder was the 25th man of Sven-Goran Eriksson's squad, waiting on the sidelines for a chance to be involved, that dream was as distant as Mount Fuji on one of steamy Japan's hazy afternoons.

The injuries which let him in, after the comings and goings from the squad saw him clock up air miles shuttling between the Far East and London, are well documented - Steven Gerrard's troublesome groin and Danny Murphy's broken foot.

It was the injury suffered by Owen Hargreaves, however, in the first 20 minutes of England's epic encounter with Argentina which gave Sinclair the opportunity which at 29 he just could not afford to squander.

He didn't, coming off the bench to lend instant balance and menace to England's left-hand side and at a stroke solve Eriksson's most enduring problem.

He revealed today that Eriksson's message had been 'Good luck, just go out there and make sure you enjoy it.'

No Englishman has obeyed such instructions with as much apparent glee.

"It's funny how football is sometimes," said an exuberant Sinclair, who made his senior England debut only last November in a friendly against Sweden.

"I'm lucky to be here having been the 25th man in the squad. I've moved into the squad because of some unfortunate injuries.

"I had a terrible game against South Korea and a half decent game against Cameroon in the friendlies and I still felt I needed to prove something to myself rather than anyone else.

"When I got the chance against Argentina I just wanted to get into the game. I knew we were up against world class opposition so I just wanted to give it everything. I had and have no inhibitions. They had a lot of possession but we looked a lot more dangerous than they did on the break.

"When the manager called my name out I just wanted to get on and do the business. I had no time to worry about it. My philosophy is that if the chance is there take it because you might not get another.

"You always dream about things like this. That's the reason I was so happy being on standby. I'm just happy that I stuck around and kept persisting to get into the squad.

"I've gone past pinching myself. I've got a performance to produce. It's all come a bit later than I would have liked but better late than never."

On Friday Sinclair will find himself opposite Brazil's Roma full-back Cafu, a defender in typical Brazilian fashion who loves storming forward to join the attack.

It will be a test of Sinclair's concentration and resilience and the former Blackpool and QPR star admits he was impressed, though not overawed, when he joined other members of the England party to watch Brazil's 2-0 second round defeat of Belgium.

"These are the games that made you want to be a footballer," said Sinclair.

"Cafu's very athletic, strong and loves coming forward.

"They've got some great players and all our guys appreciate their skills and the style they play with. That's one of the reasons a lot of the lads went up to watch them against Belgium. These are the players we like to emulate and look up to. Let's see how we match up.

"Sometimes though it's not always the most skilful players that win, it's the most organised and the players that work the most on the night. We've just got to give everything we've got.

"All the lads are excited about it. It's a dream tie. We just want to get out there and do the job."

At which point a questioner painted the picture of Felipe Scolari, Brazil's manager, drawing arrows on a dressing room blackboard on how Brazil's defence should deal with one T.Sinclair.

The chuckle came loud and clear. "I don't know whether that's the case but if it is then it's definitely the highlight."